Evidence for a Human Late Life Mortality Plateau is an Illusion Arising from Bad Data

Mortality rises with age. In fact the very definition of aging is that it is a rise in mortality rate due to intrinsic causes, the accumulation of unrepaired damage and subsequent systems failure. Some years ago it was quite robustly established that, after a certain point, aged flies stop aging in this sense. Their mortality rates remain at a very high plateau, and do not further increase over time. Since then, researchers have crunched the numbers and debated back and forth over whether or not human demographic data shows any signs of a similar phenomenon. The challenge is the sparse, poorly gardened nature of the demographic data for people who pass a century of age. The authors of the paper noted here argue that all of the past evidence for a human mortality plateau emerged precisely because the data is problematic, and that systemic issues with data quality will tend to produce this apparent result. The age-specific probability of death follows diverse, often species-specific curves. In several species, including humans, rates of mortality increase with age have been observed flattening in advanced old age. In some cases, this late-life mortality deceleration (LLMD) is sufficient to cause a levelling off or plateau in the probability of death at advanced ages. LLMD and late-life mortality plateaus (LLMPs) have been proposed to cause the respective slowing or cessation of biological ageing at advanced ages and, respectively, increase and remove the upper limits o...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
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