A ‘worrying’ decline in life expectancy for men

Background: The gap in life expectancy has widened – and narrowed – substantially before.

At the turn of the 20th century, women had a life expectancy that was only two years longer than men, Dr. Yan said. But over the next 75 years, that gap began to widen, largely because more and more men smoked and developed cardiovascular disease or lung cancer.

As the number of smokers fell, the number of deaths fell, especially among men.

But in 2010, that gender gap began widening again, this time as a result of opioid overdose death rates, which exceed twice as high for men. That year, life expectancy for men was 76.3 years, while for women it was 78.1 years.

Men were at greater risk of developing diabetes and heart disease, and also faced higher rates of murder and suicide.

The findings: Covid caused a huge drop in life expectancy across the board.

More than 1.1 million people in the United States have died from Covid, a staggering death toll that has caused a precipitous drop in life expectancy. Between 2019 and 2021, life expectancy in the United States dropped from about 79 to 76 years.

But men have died from Covid more often than women. The reasons for this are complicated. Biological factors, such as differences in inflammatory and immune responses, likely played an important role.

But social and behavioral differences were also important. Men are more likely to work in sectors where exposure to Covid-19 and fatalities are higher, including transport, agriculture and construction, or to experience incarceration or homelessness. Women are also more likely to be vaccinated.

From 2019 to 2021, Covid was the leading contributor to the widening gap in life expectancy between men and women, contributing almost 40 percent of the difference in years lost.

Overdose and homicide deaths also increased.

Unintentional injuries – especially overdoses – contributed to more than 30 percent of the life expectancy gap between men and women. But between 2019 and 2021, more men also died by murder or suicide.

“All of this points to a picture of worsening mental health across the board, but especially among men,” said Dr. Yan.

Dr. Yan noted that his analysis did not include transgender or other gender identities because death certificates do not contain this information.