For many decades, the life expectancy of women has increased faster than that of men – but since the end of the 20th century this imbalance has been decreasing again, according to a study. However, there are significant regional differences, as reported by the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB) in Wiesbaden.
For the new study, his researchers “examined detailed cause-of-death data for 228 regions in seven European countries for the first time.” While men were still more than seven years behind women in terms of life expectancy in the mid-1990s, this difference has narrowed to less than five and a half years in recent decades.
In southern Germany, Denmark and Switzerland, the differences in life expectancy were particularly small, sometimes less than four years. Northwestern Switzerland with Basel and the surrounding area was at the forefront with a gap of only 3.3 years, closely followed by Munich and the surrounding area with 3.5 years. In contrast, in parts of eastern Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and France, the difference in life expectancy between men and women aged six and over was about twice as great.
Clear differences between town and country
According to the BiB, the researchers also observed more residues of men in the country than in the city. “Thanks to their good job opportunities, thriving cities tend to attract healthy and qualified population groups, while structurally weak regions are less attractive for these people,” explained Markus Sauerberg from the BiB. According to the research institute, this contributes to “the fact that comparatively low mortality with small gender differences is often observed in large cities”.
Unhealthy behavior can lead to a lower life expectancy. In the 20th century, smoking, which was more widespread among men, was a major reason why their life expectancy increased more slowly than that of women. According to the BiB, men also worked longer for a long time and were therefore exposed to more health risks on the job.
More pacemakers mean that men in particular are living longer. In addition, according to the information, smoking-related mortality is already declining among them, while it is still increasing among women because they only started smoking more intensively in the 1960s. Furthermore, the gender gap in job-related health risks is narrowing because more women are now working.
Lifestyle and disease prevention are key
“As the results of other studies show, only a small part of the differences between men and women can be attributed to biological differences between the sexes. The larger part depends on lifestyle and on the prevention and early detection of diseases,” the BiB said .
These aspects could be influenced by one’s own behavior and society. “How the roles of men and women in private life, at work and in crisis situations are viewed by society has a significant impact on gender differences in mortality,” explained Sebastian Klüsener, co-author of the study. “This includes, for example, whether the man is seen as more responsible for the household income, or whether certain health-impairing behaviors such as smoking or alcohol consumption are more likely to be tolerated by men or women and are more widespread.” When role models converged, the differences in mortality between men and women also tended to converge.
