Old wives’ tale or common knowledge? Do women live longer than men?
Turns out, there’s a lot of science behind the saying! A recent report by the JAMA Internal Medicine, a journal through the American Medical Association, found that on average, women can expect 5.8 more years of life than men.
While life expectancy in the U.S. is falling for all genders, a woman can expect to live until 79.3, while men can expect until 73.5. This gendered gap is larger than a previous study in 2010, when women and men could expect the closest life expectancies in modern history.
Why do men routinely live for less time? The report suggests that social factors like depression, addiction, access to firearms are a consideration, and willingness to visit doctors, as well as biological factors like hormones and heart disease.
Sources:
U.S. Women Now Live About 6 Years Longer Than Men | TIME
U.S. men die nearly six years before women | News | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
U.S. Men Die 6 Years before Women, as Life Expectancy Gap Widens | UC San Francisco (ucsf.edu)
