This is an expanded version of comments on the future of the demography of aging at an invited session of the 2008 annual meeting of the Population Association of America. In an introduction, John Haaga offers reasons for a revival of interest in population aging, including greater realization...

Relationships among socio-demographic characteristics, general assessments of health, and old-age mortality have been well established in developed countries. There is also increasing focus on the connection between early-life experiences and late-life health. This study tests these and other...

Investigations into the reasons for declines in late-life disability have largely focused on the role of contemporaneous factors. Adopting a life-course perspective as a backdrop, in this paper we ask whether there also has been a role for selected early- and mid-life factors in the decline, and...