-

Before the middle of the eighteenth century, it was unusual for a country to experience an expectation of life at birth (eo) higher than 35 years. By the middle of the nineteenth century, several countries of the Western and Northern Europe had already obtained an eo of 40 years. Today in all of the developed countries of the world, the eo exceeds 70 years. Such a dramatic rise in the level of eo in a relatively short period is what has been called the mortality transition. Generally the course of the mortality transition can be described as a shift from exogenous to endogenous causes of death. Therefore, it can be said that the mortality transition is usually accompanied by an epidemiological transition. Since mortality is easier to observe, the measure of mortality and causes of death predominated the assessment of health status for a long time. However, during the last few decades, it is argued by some scholars that mortality measures are the poor indicators of the health situation in a society, and depending, solely, on the death rates and causes of death falsifies the assessment of health status. These kinds of arguments have resulted in an increasing attention to the issue of morbidity (the attributes of sickness) in health transition studies, research and health planning.