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Mortality

Actuaries have been active in the study of mortality since the earliest days of the profession and it remains an area where actuaries can contribute to the quality of public debate and lead in the development of new thinking.

The ageing population and increasing longevity are welcome evidence of social and health improvements in society but raise new issues that are of concern to all. This continues to be an area where the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries can act in the public interest by working with other disciplines, for example in the medical, social sciences and demographic fields. Combining the expertise of actuaries with that from other disciplines will substantially improve the understanding of mortality and morbidity risk.

In 2006, the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries recognised that collaboration with other disciplines offered an opportunity to better understand past, present and future mortality trends by setting up a multi-disciplinary Mortality Research Steering Committee. An initial scoping study was followed by a successful multidisciplinary conference on mortality and longevity in October 2009.  In 2010 the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries issued a call for research proposals (now closed) in the area of mortality and longevity in recognition of the importance of this area.

 

About the Committee

The Mortality Research Steering Committee is a group of actuaries and professionals from other disciplines who aim to advance mortality research through interaction and collaboration. The Committeeis chaired by James Orr. An article on the Committee appeared in the March 2009 issue of The Actuary.

Membership

  • James Orr (Chair), FSA
  • Madhavi Bajekal, Senior Research Fellow, UCL
  • Adrian Gallop, GAD
  • Carol Jagger, Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the Leicester Nuffield Research Unit
  • Angus Macdonald, Head of Actuarial Mathematics and Statistics and Director of the Genetics and Insurance Research Centre, Heriot- Watt University
  • Sarah Mathieson, the Actuarial Profession
  • Keith Miller, RBS Financial Planning
  • Brian Ridsdale, UK representative on the IAA Mortality Task Force
  • Trevor Watkins, Head of Learning, the Actuarial Profession
  • Staff support: Maria Lyons and Pauline Simpson

For further information about working with the Committee, contact: maria.lyons@actuaries.org.uk

 

Previous events

Emerging trends in mortality and longevity, September 2011

Conference brochure

This joint symposium with the International Actuarial Association was held at Warwick from 13 – 14 September 2011 and aimed to build on the success of the Joining Forces conference on mortality and longevity held in Edinburgh in October 2009 by encouraging collaboration between disciplines in, for example, the actuarial, medical, social science and demographic fields. It was sponsored by the UK Mortality Research Steering Committee, the International Actuarial Association Mortality Working Group and our multidisciplinary partners. By hosting the conference adjacent to the Society of Social Medicine’s Annual Scientific Meeting in 2011 it was hoped to attract further participation from the medical, epidemiology and demography academic communities as well as the Actuarial Profession’s core membership.

The symposium provided a multi-disciplinary forum for the exchange of information on the latest relevant research, and also an opportunity to learn about established knowledge from a range of different disciplines, all with an interest in better understanding and managing this complex yet critical subject. The themes for this event were:

  • Socio-demographics;
  • Individualised risk;
  • The international dimension.

 

Joining forces on mortality and longevity, October 2009

Conference brochure

The Committee organised a multidisciplinary conference on mortality and longevity in Edinburgh in October 2009. The conference brought together leading academics, researchers and practitioners in actuarial and medical science to consider, debate and share knowledge about longevity and mortality. Chaired by Professor Tom Kirkwood, the conference focused on three work streams:

  • Drivers for change (Leader: Stephen Richards FFA, Richards Consulting)
  • Individualised risk (Leader: Professor Diana Kuh, Director of the MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing and of the MRC National Survey of Health and Development)
  • Cohorts (Leader: Professor Carol Jagger, University of Leicester)

The conference addressed a number of wide-ranging topics, including:

  • Genetic predisposition for a healthy long life
  • Are we ageing better at the highest ages?
  • Lifetime body size and mortality risk
  • The impact of lifestyle on longevity

Further details of the conference were published in the December issue of The Actuary and on the magazine's website

Papers from the conference have been published in a supplement to vol 15 of British Actuarial Journal in 2010.

 

Institute sessional meeting, September 2008

 

Mortality experts meeting, March 2008

Around 50 invited guests from a range of disciplines attended the Mortality Experts Scoping Meeting on 3 March 2008 at Staple Inn. The meeting was chaired by Professor Tom Kirkwood, Director of the Institute for Ageing and Health at the University of Newcastle, who delivered the 2001 Reith Lecture, The end of age. The objective of the meeting was to explore how gaps in current research into mortality, identified in the report Scoping mortality research prepared by Dr Catriona Macdonald under the supervision of the Mortality Development Scoping Project Steering Group, might be identified and filled. The Project Steering Group recognises that collaboration between the actuarial profession and other disciplines will be beneficial in gaining new insights into mortality trends.

 

The impact of medical advances and lifestyle on mortality, January 2008

Presentations by Professor Angus Macdonald FRSE, Professor Howard Waters, Tushar Chatterjee, Edward Roche and Dr Catriona Macdonald, followed by an open discussion at the Faculty sessional meeting on 14 January 2008