The demand for life insurance in the United States decreased by 2.6% in January 2017 compared to the same month one year earlier, according to the Medical Information Bureau’s (MIB) Life Index.

Each month, the MIB Life Index measures application activity for individually underwritten life insurance in the United States. The decline recorded for January 2017 was accentuated by “exceptionally strong Index value in the January 2016 comparative period,” noted the Index, which was released Feb. 13.

MIB says that the January 2017 results appear to indicate a shift in the long term trend. “After a record setting eight consecutive quarters of growth that ended in Q2 2016, the MIB Life Index lost ground in four of the six remaining months with declines extending into early 2017,” said the report.

MIB saw a decrease in application activity across three age groups in January compared to the same month last year: Ages 0-44 was off -2.2%; ages 45-59 was off -4.8%; and ages 60+ was off -0.2%.

Month-over-month, application activity was up 1.9% in January 2017 compared to December 2016.