Epidemiologic approach to the biology of human life span.

The present work suggests a new, epidemiologic approach to the study of the biological mechanisms determining human life span. The proposed approach is based on revealing the biological component of human mortality with a subsequent analysis of its regional and sex variability. The biological component of mortality is defined as a component which is age-dependent, but historically stable with respect to socio-economic transformations. It has been shown that the Gompertz function elaborated in the Gompertz-Makeham Law known since 1860 can serve as the biological component. The Gompertz function values, being historically stable. For the first time ever, biological mortality maps have been drawn for the male and female population of Europe. Possible mechanisms of these regional and sex-related biological distinctions are likewise considered.