Human life expectancy now at 72; women outliving men

MANILA, Philippines — The average life expectancy globally has increased by five-and-a-half years since the turn of the century, according to the new United Nations health agency statistics report. And everywhere, women are outliving men.

Apart from the average increase from 66.5 years to 72 overall, the World Health Organization’s World Health Statistics Overview 2019 findings show that “healthy” life expectancy – the number of years individuals live in full health – increased from 58.5 years in 2000, to 63.3 years in 2016.

The report finds that differing attitudes toward healthcare between men and women, help to account for the discrepancy in life expectancy between the sexes.

“Whether it’s homicide, road accidents, suicide, cardiovascular disease – time and time again, men are doing worse than women,” said Dr. Richard Cibulskis, main author of the WHO’s World Health Statistics Overview 2019.

The report said that in countries with generalized HIV epidemics, for example, men “are less likely than women to take an HIV test, less likely to access antiretroviral therapy and more likely to die of AIDS-related illnesses than women.” The same principle, it added, applies for tuberculosis sufferers, with male patients less likely to seek care than women.

The report also finds that of the 40 leading causes of death, 33 of it contribute more significantly to reduced life expectancy in men than in women.

In 2016, this corresponded with data indicating that the probability of a 30-year-old man dying from a non-communicable disease – such as heart conditions – before the age of 70 is 44 percent higher than for a woman of the same age.

Other findings demonstrated that global suicide rates were 75 percent higher in men than in women, deaths from road injuries were more than twice as high in men than in women over the age of 15, and male mortality rates linked to homicide were four times higher.

While WHO’s Global Health Statistics have been disaggregated by sex for the first time, the UN agency cautioned that many countries are still struggling to provide gender disaggregated information which could help to better assess individual needs.

One of the trends confirmed in the report is an increase in non-communicable diseases in low and middle-income countries that are linked to a rise in risk factors such as smoking, alcohol consumption and unhealthy diets.

The WHO said the trend is particularly marked on the African continent where it is exacerbated by a lack of access to primary health care and medicine. – With Pia Lee-Brago