Research claims that life expectancy chasm widens in US as men die six years before women

For more than a century, it has been established that, on average, women tend to live longer than men. However, recent research conducted by UC San Francisco and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has revealed a significant widening of this gender-based life expectancy gap in the United States over the past decade.

Published on November 13, 2023, in JAMA Internal Medicine, the study highlights that the life expectancy difference between American men and women increased to 5.8 years in 2021, marking the highest disparity since 1996. This represents a noteworthy departure from the smallest recorded gap of 4.8 years in 2010.

Brandon Yan, MD, MPH, the first author of the paper and a UCSF internal medicine resident physician and research collaborator at Harvard Chan School, emphasized the lack of systematic analysis into the reasons behind the widening gap since 2010 despite extensive research into the overall decline in life expectancy.

Contributing Factors:

The study identifies the COVID-19 pandemic as a key factor driving the expanding gender disparity from 2019 to 2021. Unintentional injuries and poisonings, primarily linked to drug overdoses, as well as accidents and suicide, also contribute significantly to this trend.

The pandemic, which disproportionately affected men, plays a pivotal role in this shift. The study underscores the combined impact of the virus and unintentional injuries and poisonings in influencing the widening gender gap.

The decline in overall US life expectancy to 76.1 years in 2021, down from 78.8 years in 2019, is partially attributed to “deaths of despair,” encompassing suicides, drug use disorders, and alcoholic liver disease, often associated with economic hardship, depression, and stress.

While death rates from drug overdoses and homicides increased for both genders, men increasingly represent a disproportionate share of these fatalities. This raises questions about the necessity for more specialized care, particularly in mental health, to address the growing life expectancy disparity.