Partly due to higher rates of smoking and heart disease in men, although the gap varies between countries, new research published in the Journal of the Canadian Medical Association suggests that men over 50 years of age are 60% higher probability of dying compared to women. The data included more than 179,000 people in 28 countries .
The study examined different socioeconomic (education, wealth), lifestyle (smoking, alcohol use), health (heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, and depression), and social (spouse, living alone) factors that could contribute to the mortality gap. between men and women.
Gender factors rather than sexual
The reasons for this gap are biological, because they take place in countries with different lifestyles and cultures, but they also have a social, gender factor, because these discrepancies are greater or less depending on the country studied. According to Yu-Tzu Wu , from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience. King’s College London:
The effects of sex on mortality must include not only the physiological variation between men and women, but also the social construction of gender, which differs between societies. In particular, the large variation between countries may imply a greater effect of gender than of sex. Although the biology of the sexes is consistent across populations, variation in cultural, social, and historical contexts can lead to different life experiences for men and women and variations in the mortality gap.
The researchers recommend that public health policies take into account differences based on sex and gender and the influence of social and cultural factors on health.
In addition, in countries like the United States, deaths from despair ( Deaths of despair ), those caused mainly by suicides or drug and alcohol abuse, are increasing in non-Hispanic whites , but they are decreasing in non-Hispanic whites with university studies , as well as the rest of the population segments (be they university or not).