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Why US Women Now Live Almost 6 Years Longer Than Men (time.com) 191

According to a new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine, women in the U.S. are now projected to live about six years longer than U.S. men. TIME reports: [T]he 2021 data represent the largest gender-based life expectancy gap in the U.S. since 1996. The gulf began to widen before the COVID-19 pandemic, the authors note, but the trend accelerated from 2019 to 2021. Deaths from COVID-19 and unintentional injuries, a category that includes accidental drug overdoses, were the largest contributors to the widening of the gap, but differential rates of homicide, heart disease, and suicide deaths also played a role, according to the report. It's well-established that men die of these causes more frequently than women, and in recent years, they have been some of the most common causes of death overall. Heart disease, COVID-19, and unintentional injuries accounted for three of the top five in 2021.

The gender gap would have been even wider, the authors note, but for factors including increases in maternal mortality and decreases in cancer deaths among men. Overall, the data underscore the continued importance of limiting COVID-19's spread, and of finding better ways to improve national mental health and prevent drug overdoses and suicides -- fatalities sometimes labeled by experts as "deaths of despair."

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Why US Women Now Live Almost 6 Years Longer Than Men

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  • Men are too stubborn (Score:5, Interesting)

    by CaptQuark ( 2706165 ) on Saturday November 18, 2023 @02:15AM (#64014105)

    Part of the reason is men are too stubborn to go to the doctor, take their medicine, or take a walk once a week.

    https://imgur.com/gallery/zr2V... [imgur.com]

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      Another reason is genetic. Women have a backup for all their genes, but men have no backup for the genes on the X chromosome. This is why many recessive genes on the X chromosome, such as color blindness and hemophilia, are rarely seen in women.

      Yet another reason is evolution. Men have evolved to be bigger to defend the tribe and fight off rivals. Smaller men outlive bigger men but are less likely to have offspring. Women have no biological imperative to be bigger, so can be the optimum size for good health

      • by Luckyo ( 1726890 ) on Saturday November 18, 2023 @03:34AM (#64014161)

        It goes deeper. Traditional "there's a problem" instinct in women is to protect the offspring. I.e. they will run away from the problem.

        Men have the opposite response. They run toward the problem, because they are the ones who need to make sure that women and children survive into the future. That leads to death even in today's world, but defines the factors that count as an "acceptable risk" completely different for two genders. Women are far more risk averse than men.

        • You're narrowing "the problem" to an immediate risk of harm to one's family. Of the top 10 causes of death in 2021, only Accidents ((unintentional injuries): 224,935) could partially overlap with this, and that's by lumping in thrill seeking behavior with protective instincts. On the other hand, Heart disease: 695,547; Cancer: 605,213; COVID-19: 416,893; Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 162,890; Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 142,342; Alzheimer’s disease: 119,399; Diabetes: 103,294; Chronic
        • It goes deeper. Traditional "there's a problem" instinct in women is to protect the offspring. I.e. they will run away from the problem.

          Men have the opposite response. They run toward the problem, because they are the ones who need to make sure that women and children survive into the future. That leads to death even in today's world, but defines the factors that count as an "acceptable risk" completely different for two genders. Women are far more risk averse than men.

          Sounds like a "just-so" story trying to justify dumb male risk taking as some kind of altruistic act.

          It's not even a particularly good mechanism proposed. The behaviour you want is protectiveness and self-sacrifice, but that doesn't excess male risk taking (or men not going to the doctor).

          Now, there's evolutionary driven male behaviours that actually do explain the excess male mortality. Competition for mates.

          First, men have to compete more to find mates, that means they need to take extra risks in order to

      • by quenda ( 644621 )

        That's highly speculative. Something with more evidence is hormones.
        Some studies show eunuchs living longer than women. US sex offenders who have been chemically castrated also seem to have a substantially longer lifespan than controls. So if men want to live longer, there is one proven method ...

        https://edition.cnn.com/2012/0... [cnn.com]

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          A less drastic way would be to give men a better model of masculinity to follow, as an outlet for those hormonal drives they experience.

          We used to have competitions where people fought to the death. Now we have much safer sports, although some still carry a high risk of injury. We can keep refining this.

      • Are you in London today? If so I recommend you attend the annual BAHfest at Imperial College. Since your ideas would I think appeal to the audience there. This is what the event is about:

        https://www.smbc-comics.com/co... [smbc-comics.com]

        For the reading impaired or lazy: just so stories are not evolutionary facts no matter how much they flatter your ego or fit your worldview.

      • by gtall ( 79522 )

        The article is about why the gap has widened, not so much why it was there in the first place. Maybe women have developed extra genes while no one was looking?

        • The article is about why the gap has widened, not so much why it was there in the first place. Maybe women have developed extra genes while no one was looking?

          Of course not.

          As the article notes, there are a number of reasons. Most good, hormones, risk taking, declining extensive medial care. I'm surprised they don't touch on men having some of the most dangerous jobs.

          What is interesting is that they don't touch on another possible reason.

          They came close with the "depths of despair" thing, but missed the mark. Many men simply don't care.

          The male of the species is not terribly popular, and are bombarded by enough shaming that just might have some small part

      • This is news from a year ago.

        It's more informative to look at the actual life expectancy graphs, not just the difference:
        https://usafacts.org/articles/... [usafacts.org]

        • What's surprising is that we (the U.S.A. people) we narrowing the gap on the regular between the two for the last 20+ years until both figures tanked and went back to turn of the century levels. Tells me it can be done and we got it in us. I figure the drop is from COVIDtimes.
      • by hey! ( 33014 )

        Err.. No. Humans have 23 *pairs* of chromosomes and the sex determining chromosone is just one pair -- and that pair doesn't work the way you seem to think.

        The *base* life expectancy difference between men and women is due to a combination of behavioral and biological differences. The biggest biological difference is that men have a higher propensity to develop heart disease, which is consistently the largest source of mortality in the US, just ahead of cancer. That right there is going to make a big dif

    • by Sique ( 173459 )
      It's a little more complicated. In general, men have larger error bars on their average behavior. Male and female behavior overlaps quite nicely. The difference in behavior between two random women or the difference in behavior between two random men on average is larger than the difference between the average man and the average woman. But at the fringes of human behavior, you find more men. You find more psychic disorders, more drunkards, more criminals, more radicals, more extreme sport athletes among me
      • If you factor out all the people dying early because of extreme behavior or in extreme conditions, the life expectancy gap between women and men narrows to a few month.

        Would like to see the analysis showing this. Clearly some of it is attributable to behavior (including things like the fact that men are overrepresented in dangerous jobs). But I've never seen data showing that over 90% of the difference is attributable to behavior. The main contributing factor is higher cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality in men: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.go... [nih.gov]

        Note that the difference is also seen in other mamallian species: https://www.voanews.com/a/scie... [voanews.com]

    • Can it be "mammoth behaviour"? https://www.sciencenews.org/bl... [sciencenews.org]

    • Q. Why do Jewish men die before their wives?

      A. They want to!

    • Part of the reason is men are too stubborn to go to the doctor, take their medicine, or take a walk once a week.

      https://imgur.com/gallery/zr2V... [imgur.com]

      Another thing. There's an old saying - Men die before their wives because they want to.

      That's not inaccurate either. I have no intention of taking extraordinary measure to eke out a few more years. The problem wiht life extension is it's all on the old and decrepit end of life. Great - spend an extra decade in a nursing home.

    • The main reason is that men have to put up with women.

  • So maternal mortality has gone up? It's a national shame.
  • by Alain Williams ( 2972 ) <addw@phcomp.co.uk> on Saturday November 18, 2023 @02:37AM (#64014133) Homepage

    19 November is International Men's Day [wikipedia.org]

  • by Iamthecheese ( 1264298 ) on Saturday November 18, 2023 @03:41AM (#64014175)
    How much of that number is caused by suicides, I wonder.

    The only Men's Shelter in Canada Calls for Help [youtube.com]
  • If they're going to live longer, they should work longer! Seems reasonable. For decades men worked longer... ;)

    • If they're going to live longer, they should work longer! Seems reasonable. For decades men worked longer... ;)

      Because for decades women stayed home to care for the kids, take care of the house, etc.

      Also, because families could survive on one salary so there was no need for her to work.

      • .. for decades women stayed home to care for the kids, take care of the house, etc.

        When I started work, the retirement age for women was 5 years lower than that for men. Nothing to do with kids, and somehow the house was taking care of itself for those years since the kids left.

        Also, because families could survive on one salary so there was no need for her to work.

        Salaries went down in real terms when it became usual for every woman to work, and employers realised you would tolerate a lower salary each for the same lifestyle. When my parents bought a 3-bed house in a respectable area, the mortgage was based on my father's salary alone (which was nothing special). On the e

        • I think the argument went that married couples wanted to retire together and in the typical marriage the woman was younger than the man
      • Because for decades women stayed home to care for the kids, take care of the house, etc.

        Also, because families could survive on one salary so there was no need for her to work.

        The reason that two incomes are just about mandatory now is that women were told that working outside the home was the path to happiness. And they bought into it.

        So as more and more women decided to work in a career, if eventually brought supply and demand, as the potential workforce nearly doubled.

        Relative Wages have remained stagnant.

        The awkward thing is that many women haven't found the career driven life as much a paradise as they were told. I've seen enough vids complaining that they're tired, a

  • Equality (Score:5, Insightful)

    by burtosis ( 1124179 ) on Saturday November 18, 2023 @05:03AM (#64014251)
    This large a gap in wealthy nations seems to be mostly unique to America, and given the diversity of the population and spread of the statistical longevity it rules out genetic causes as the difference. There is widespread public sentiment not to address mens issues, how big would it need to get, 10 years? 20? Just saying men face a different spread of problems than women gets you labeled a toxic whiner. If it were women who were suffering there would be a massive effort to help them (as there should be) but as it stands I see little to no such help coming for men. In fact, it’s typically straight to victim blaming and any attempt to point that out is knee jerked to something along the lines of they deserve it for their own bad choices or are pieces of shit who get what’s coming to them or men can’t be victims, they are the problem.
    • by skam240 ( 789197 )

      Well you're probably going to call this "victim blaming" but I definitely think its more of a refusal by many men in this county to react to very well known data. I've certainly been aware since I was a child that men are more prone to heart disease meanwhile my country's obesity epidemic continues with over a third of men being obese https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]. (never mind the far larger number of those overweight), a very well known contributor to heart disease.

      Homicides too, we can see in our hom

      • by Teun ( 17872 )
        If I have to believe supporters of the NRA Americans need guns to defend themselves for living longer!
        • I suspect I will live longer if I run from a gun fight. Participation seems like a 50/50 chance no matter what gun I buy and barely train myself to use.

      • Yes, you are victim blaming. The study, admittedly behind a paywall, outlines the main differences correlated with the recent change in life expectancy include Covid, opioids, cars, and guns. If it were simply men being more prone to heart disease, not only would the study have likely mentioned it, but it’s effects would be present before this recent change and in other countries so that does not add up. Also your statement on weight implies it’s their own bad choices and they deserve what th
        • by skam240 ( 789197 )

          What are you even talking about?

          it were simply men being more prone to heart disease, not only would...

          I covered two of the major issues they describe in the summary and then I end stating that what I was talking about does not apply to all of the issues in the summary

          your statement on weight implies it’s their own bad choices and they deserve what they get, but are you going to go on the record and say that about women?

          Hahaha, what? For starters we're talking about men not women so this is nonsense. Almost any woman whose had a child has much more of a burden in terms of weight than any man. There is however a level of personal responsibility even for ladies (although much more for men) as 50 years ago America wasn't anywhere n

          • I covered two of the major issues they describe in the summary and then I end stating that what I was talking about does not apply to all of the issues in the summary

            You touched on the issue, went off tangentially compared to the actual paper, all while preceding it with “ but I definitely think its more of a refusal by many men in this county to react to very well known data” implying it’s their fault and they got what’s coming to them with no mention that perhaps the societal pressures are to blame. The society being made of men and women.

            Homicides down 7% recently doesn't at all undermining what im saying. We still have homicide and gun violence rates 5 times that of other first world countries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ [wikipedia.org]... [wikipedia.org] , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ [wikipedia.org]... [wikipedia.org] . A 7% positive spin is pathetic relative to the scope of our problem.

            Americas problems with guns are decades, if not centuries old. The recent change in relative lifespans ha

        • Two different things being discussed in the discussion thread here. One is "why is the life expectancy lower for men than women?" and the other is "why is the gap in life expectancy between men and women increasing?"

          A significant part of the difference in life expectancy between men and women is due to higher mortality at an earlier age for heart disease in men compared to women.

          The question about the increase, however, is different. But one factor (of many) in the difference is a higher mortality due to C

      • Well you're probably going to call this "victim blaming" but I definitely think its more of a refusal by many men in this county to react to very well known data.

        What is your reaction to women being happier after their husband are dead ?https://www.ajc.com/news/world/women-happier-after-age-once-spouse-dies-psychiatrists-say/ifVqdY8tuPmRVEdFXaHMjI/

        You're stepping on a lot of women's healing journey - This is pure patriarchy BS tring to have men live longer, and women are the most affected.

    • I don't think so, but maybe I'm wrong? Here are plenty of world statistics for most countries:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

      Numbers from the World Bank Group for 2021 for the world average are:
      Life expectancy = 71.33
      Male life expectancy = 68.89
      Female average expectancy = 73.95
      Gender gap = 5.06

      For the US:
      Life expectancy = 76.33
      Male life expectancy = 73.50
      Female average expectancy = 79.30
      Gender gap = 5.80

      There are lots of more numbers to digest, for those eager. Meanwhile maybe I should m
      • by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

        The world average probably isn't a great comparitor. The US does seem to be on the lower end of differential life expectancy by sex compared to peer nations. It's flanked in life expectancy by Algeria (3.08 year differential) and Panama (6.54), but most of the close nations are in the 5 or 6 range.

  • by iAmWaySmarterThanYou ( 10095012 ) on Saturday November 18, 2023 @08:02AM (#64014373)

    My mom decided last year to move into an assisted living situation.

    There are about 250 residents. Almost all women. Her place is only 10 minutes away so I visit several times a month. I've seen only 3-4 male residents in the last year in total across my numerous times there. I haven't asked the staff but the women seem to be at least 95% of the population.

    The gap may be widening as per the article but my anecdotal experience is men were already wiped out by the late 70s / early 80s for whatever reasons.

  • by GuB-42 ( 2483988 ) on Saturday November 18, 2023 @08:21AM (#64014403)

    While it is a well know fact the women live longer than men on average for a variety of reasons, the recent numbers are heavily influenced by the covid pandemic because of the way live expectancy is calculated.

    Covid killed many people, with a higher proportion of men, resulting in a sharp drop in life expectancy and more so in men. But it is a statistical artefact, people should not expect to die sooner now that the pandemic has passed, and life expectancy should do back up and the gender gap shrink, that's unless something else happens in the future. It is just that life expectancy is actually a measure of the past, not the future, it is statistics, not fortune telling, and events like pandemics, or wars result in sharp, but temporary drops, and in the case of wars, large gender gaps as men are usually the ones who fight and get killed.

    It doesn't mean there isn't something other than covid (and it is mentioned in the article), but covid makes it harder to draw conclusions for now as it is the dominant cause of the widening gender gap.

    • COVID-19 death rates were indeed a factor, but this was not the largest factor in the increase in death rate of men.

      Drug overdoses and suicide rates were larger factors in the increased mortality rate and the discrepancy in mortality rate between men and women.

  • It's not just a funny joke; it's reality. Of course, it's a mixed bag. You get people discovering new and exciting things and also new and exciting ways to kill themselves.
  • by Miles_O'Toole ( 5152533 ) on Saturday November 18, 2023 @08:43AM (#64014433)

    I have a proposal that may help reverse this sad trend. For many years, there has been discussion about establishing Steak and BJ Day for men. The time to move beyond mere discussion is now. It would give us something to live for.

    • I have a proposal that may help reverse this sad trend. For many years, there has been discussion about establishing Steak and BJ Day for men. The time to move beyond mere discussion is now. It would give us something to live for.

      As a man, I already give plenty year-round. Not really looking forward to giving steak & BJs too.

      • I'm sorry, sir, but this may be one of those times you'll have to lean into the strike zone and take one for the team...as it were.

        Your generosity of spirit will be very much appreciated.

  • Because they want to!

    Thank you thank you I'll be here all night. Tip the veal and try your waitress!
  • Legalize drugs so people will know what they are taking.

  • Given what men go through, I'm shocked it's not higher, especially in the USA The ave life expectancy in the USA is 77. How many wars have been fought since 1946? Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria?...what else did I miss? A I'd say men were 90% of the casualties...as well as probably 75% with the suicide-inducing PTSD.

    Next: Urban Violence...hits poor black and latino communities harder, but the vast majority of victims of gang violence are men.

    Next: Dangerous jobs.
  • Crap supplements, TRT at too early an age, and all the other "safe" steroid replacements are finally catching up with them.

  • This is more evidence of the patriarchy lording it over women.

    Yeah, that's the ticket. All those macho guys keep women out of macho guys jobs, where they work themselves to an early death or die in work accidents.

  • ... put on a little bit of weight later in life tend to live longer than the men who point it out to them.

It's hard to think of you as the end result of millions of years of evolution.

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