Women outlive men everywhere in the world

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

The upcoming World Health Report will show that women's life expectancy exceeds men's worldwide.
In The Netherlands, the last time men outlived women was in 1860. It's long been the case that women's life expectancy was higher than that of men in Western Europe. Now the trend is global, according to researchers at the University of Sheffield, UK. They are commenting on the 2006 World Health Report, to be released this week.

The reasons why women are outliving men everywhere suggests that maternal death is not as big a problem as it used to be (although it has by no means gone away). Social change has driven women's improved life expectancy - they want, and are receiving, better health care. In Western Europe, the gap between men and women's life expectancy has begun to narrow a bit. That women are living longer, healthier lives everywhere is good news. There is only one drawback - women are now smoking more and if this trend continues they may lose their life expectancy advantage. This is especially true of women in poorer countries.

Source
British Medical Journal 8th April 2006 Volume 332 page 808

Please take a moment to give us your comments. For questions about Health matters you may check our "Questions & Answers" Portal and Service.