Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 April 2012
1.1. This is intended as a discussion paper or a working paper. It does present new data; but that is not its main purpose. Its aim is to stimulate thinking about possible techniques for studying mortality through morbidity, rather than to produce results. The Secretary of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population when outlining the purpose of a new committee of the I.U.S.S.P. on “factors affecting mortality and the length of life” stated that “it is a common feeling that the traditional demographic and actuarial approach to mortality produces diminishing returns. It is also a common feeling that closer links with other biomedical disciplines, with genetics or biology, are essential if we wish as demographers to improve our contribution to the study of mortality.”(1) The formation of that Committee was a major factor prompting me to set down some views which I have long held on the subject of mortality studies.