Women's lifespan edge over men slowing, study shows

Submitted by anthony on Tue, 2012-05-15 03:32

Article here. Excerpt:

'A new, 20-year research project shows women still outlive men but that their life spans are increasing more slowly than men's. — The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation conducted a county-by-county estimate and comparison of U.S. life expectancies from 1989 to 2009.

Nationwide, life expectancy grew by 4.6 years for men and 2.7 years for women in those two decades.

"Men are catching up with them," said Dr. Ali Mokdad, head of the study's U.S. County Performance team. "Men and women should have exactly the same life expectancy (gains)."

Chipping away at women's life spans are preventable causes of death, including tobacco, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity and alcohol, researchers say.

"Their life spans are getting shorter because they are not able to control the risk factors," Mokdad said.

The study, released this spring, was funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation is an independent global health research center at the University of Washington.'

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Comments

Men are living longer. Ye gods, what's next, a cataclysmic earthquake? Notice how the story is framed-- it's an emergency because women seem negatively affected by... what? Same things men have always been negatively affected by. Only when that happens to women, it's a national emergency. It's been happening to men for countless millenia, no one has batted an eyelash over it. If anyone doubts that women's lives are considered more valuable--eminently more valuable-- than men's lives, just read articles like these.

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Submitted by Matt on Tue, 2012-05-15 14:42

This article is actually pretty tame in comparison to the last one on this topic posted here (at mensactivism). The last one practically called it a national epidemic, and most certainly called it an emergency (that word isn't actually found in this article).

Anyways, here is what I posted:

Why is it there isn't concern men and women's life expectancy isn't the same? Is this another case of, if women aren't beating men, it's a problem? Could this decrease in the gap be caused by, say, women taking on the same stresses men have always had to endure, and that having an impact on their lives? This would mean, while everyone's lifespan increases, men are gaining because their lifespan ha already accounted for those stresses, while female lifespans haven't, and that incorporation of those stresses is setting the advancement back slightly?

It really bothers me that the fact women didn't get as much of a gain as men is determined to be a problem worth putting more funding into the predominantly women only health organizations, but the fact men continue to have shorter lifespans is irrelevant, and doesn't even warrants the creation of a single mens health organization. Is our society really so gynocentric and apathetic to men? (rhetorical question, Obama makes perfectly clear the answer).

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Submitted by Kratch on Tue, 2012-05-15 15:50