Life Expectancy Gap Between Men and Women Widens in US
Recent data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that the life expectancy gap between men and women in the United States is at its widest in decades. Women, on average, can expect to live nearly six years longer than men, and the Covid-19 pandemic and drug overdose deaths have exacerbated this disparity.
Since the start of the pandemic, overall life expectancy in the US has fallen by more than two and a half years, dropping to 76.1 years in 2021. Both men and women have been affected, but not equally. In 2021, the life expectancy for women was 79.3 years, compared to 73.5 years for men, resulting in a gap of 5.8 years – the widest difference since 1996.
The reasons for this growing gap in life expectancy include differences in mortality rates for various causes of death. While women have consistently outlived men, the gap has been driven by higher mortality rates among men for unintentional injuries, diabetes, suicide, homicide, and heart disease. Covid-19 mortality rates also played a significant role in widening the gender life expectancy gap, with men being more than twice as likely to die from unintentional injuries, particularly drug overdoses.
The study also highlighted the impact of the increase in maternal deaths among women and some improvement in cancer deaths among men, which partially mitigated the widening gap. However, the analysis found that Covid-19 and the drug overdose epidemic were major contributors to the growing gender gap in life expectancy.
The study authors pointed to higher rates of comorbidities and health behaviors among men, as well as socioeconomic factors such as rates of incarceration and homelessness, as potential reasons for the disparity. Additionally, the authors emphasized the significance of overdose deaths, homicide, and suicide as indicators of the twin crises of deaths from despair and firearm violence.
It’s important to note that the study was limited by a binary classification of gender and did not explore overlap across disease classifications and different demographic subgroups.
Overall, the widening gap in life expectancy between men and women in the US underscores the need for targeted interventions and policies to address the underlying factors contributing to this disparity.