Commentary: The longitudinal perspective and cohort analysis

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Abstract
Cohorts are closed populations defined and bounded by their timepoints of entry, often but not necessarily at birth. In this issue, a classic article by Kermack, McKendrick and McKinley reprinted from the Lancet of 1934 illustrates an early use of cohort analysis. Such analyses follow successive generations of entrants through the life course. The object is to link the pattern of specified outcomes to the particular previous experience defined by membership of a generation. The outcome of interest to Kermack et al. was overall mortality at successive ages; their significant discovery was to demonstrate the potentially large and continuing contribution of experience in the earliest years to rates of death throughout the lifetime of each generation.

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