Introduction to the Special Collection of papers on "Determinants of diverging trends in mortality"

This article introduces the Special Collection of papers presented at the first seminar of the Committee on Emerging Health Threats (CEHT) of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP), "Determinants of Diverging Trends of Mortality". The seminar was held in Rostock (Germany) on 19-21 of June 2002. The seminar encouraged studies on adverse mortality trends and widening mortality differentials between and within countries. The introduction to the collection argues that mortality divergence is a new and significant phenomenon in global population health. It then presents the scientific agenda of the seminar and provides a brief overview of the thirteen studies that constitute the Special Collection.