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population has enjoyed rapidly declining mortality rates at all ages and for both sexes. This was an unanticipated phenomenon; it followed two decades (the 1950s and 1960s) of virtually stationary rates for males and slowly declining ones for females. Reasons for the new decline are not known with certainty, but scientists believe that early diagnosis and treatment of life-threatening chronic diseases has been a major factor. If people's chances of survival improve, especially at middle and older ages, what happens to the health profile of the population? Does it worsen because the people rescued from death are ill, and their retention in the living population boosts prevalence rates of chronic conditions?
Lois M. Verbrugge (Sun,) studied this question.