East- West mortality divide: what is the role of advanced ages?

Marketa Pechholdova, Max Planck Institute For Demographic Research
Domantas Jasilionis, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
Dmitri A. Jdanov, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

Despite recent positive health developments in some Eastern European countries, East-West gap in life expectancy is remaining very significant. Our results confirm that health divide has become very notable also at advanced ages. However, so far relatively few studies have attempted to explore East-West mortality differences at older ages. Our study is primarily focusing on the East-West mortality differences at older ages. First, using mortality data from Human Mortality Database (www.mortality.org) we construct three typical mortality patterns relevant to Western countries, Eastern Europe and Russia. Second, we apply advanced measures of human longevity together with the concept of mortality compression to explain how the East-West mortality gap has been expanding towards the most advanced ages. Finally, we introduce a method of survival decomposition to measure the impact of different causes of death on the divergent trends in survival at older ages.