Men catching up to women in life expectancy: study

By Ed Leefeldt

NEW YORK (Reuters) – As the first of the 75 million baby
boomers touch 60 in January, there’s good news for the men:
They are catching up to women in life expectancy.

A new “Longevity Index” by Credit Suisse First Boston shows
that while women still live four years longer on average, men
are gaining twice as fast in the age race.

Medical experts say women are working harder, smoking more
and undergoing more stress, which leads to the No. 1 killer —
heart disease.

“We are getting equality in ways we may not want,” said Dr.
Sharon Brangman, a board member of the American Geriatrics
Society.

The Longevity Index is designed to help insurance companies
and pension funds hedge their risk as both men and women live
longer — and cost more — in pension payments and lifetime
annuity payments.

Women can now expect an average 82.6 years of life, the
index shows, while men can look forward to 78.1 years.

But over the last 10 years, the average annual rate of
improvement for men has been 2 percent; for women, it’s
slightly less than 1 percent, the index shows.

For the 22 years covered by the index, the expected average
lifetime for men has gone up by 3.7 years; women’s climbed only
1.7 years.

While some male-dominated causes of death such as alcohol,
drugs, firearms and AIDS have dropped in recent years, the
biggest change has been in the toll taken by the traditional
killers: heart disease and cancer.

Men’s lung cancer rates have been declining since 1990,
while women’s were rising, statistics show.

“Women started smoking seriously 25 years ago, and the lag
time for this epidemic has kicked in,” said Dr. Michael Thun,
who heads epidemiological research at the American Cancer
Society.

The Credit Suisse index shows the greatest advances have
been made in the 50-year-old age bracket, where heart disease
frequently fells middle-agers.

Lifestyle changes such as exercise and low-fat diets, along
with cardiac bypass surgery and defibrillators, are keeping
more people alive, Dr. Brangman said.

Despite the gains, it’s likely that women will continue to
outlive men, said Robert Anderson, chief of mortality
statistics at the National Center for Health Statistics.

“Men engage in more risky behavior,” he said. “It’s just
our lot to die sooner.”