Work ability of the aged under conditions of improving mortality.

age has been linked to the age at which people are no longer "sufficiently healthy to function in their jobs." This linkage was accepted by both the proponents and the opponents of raising the retirement age in the March 1981 report of the National Commission on Social Security. The majority position was: "The Commission anticipates that increased longevity will be accompanied by a corresponding increase in active life. . . . Expert opinion in the field of research on aging holds that the period of 'diminished vigor' associated with aging will decrease so that 'chronic disease will occupy a smaller proportion of the typical life span' " (National Commission on Social Security 1981, 126). On the other hand, a minority of the commission contended that "the evidence does not support any claims that longer life is equivalent to longer years of good health.... The evidence certainly does not support speculation that the incidence of good health is increasing" (National Commission on Social Security 1981, 331). Unfortunately, the current state of knowledge does not permit a definitive resolution of this controversy. I shall attempt, however, to clarify some of the issues. We shall focus on the populations in the age groups between 50