S15	Mortality and ageing - Mortalité aux grands âges
Organiser:	Wilmoth John Department of Demography, Univ. of California, Berkeley, 2232 Piedmont Ave., Berkeley, CA 94720-2120, USA Tel: +1 510 642 9688 /9800 Fax: +1 510 643 8558 Email: jrw@demog.berkeley.edu
Outline:	Broadly speaking, three phases of mortality can be identified over the human life span, corresponding to processes of (1) development in early life, (2) maturation and social change during the transition to adulthood, and (3) ageing from early adulthood until the end of life. There is some evidence that a fourth phase emerges at very old ages, when ageing processes may slow down. This session will feature studies of mortality during the third (and fourth) phase(s) of life. Ageing can be defined as a process of physiological deterioration in adult organisms that leads to increasing risks of adverse events (including death) over the life course. Therefore, relevant topics for this session include the age pattern of mortality increase in adulthood, trends in adult mortality related to the diseases of ageing, differences in ageing and mortality by sex or social class, connections between mortality, morbidity and disability in the context of ageing, and so forth. Preference will be given to studies that go beyond mere description and emphasise the causal connections between mortality patterns and ageing processes. Reports of research on mortality and ageing in non-humans are welcome, if connected to similar studies in humans.