The life expectancy gap between men and women in the U.S. has widened to the largest difference since 1996, with women expected to live almost six years longer than men, according to a recent study.
The study, published Nov. 13 in JAMA Internal Medicine, found overall life expectancy in the country fell more than two and a half years after the start of the pandemic. The causes for shorter life expectancy differs between men and women.
Here are four things to know:
- The lowest gap between sexes was 4.8 years in 2010, but the gap grew 0.7 years in the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic until it reached 5.8 years.
- Between 2010 and 2019, the largest driver of the gap was higher mortality rates among men for unintentional injury, diabetes, suicide, homicide and heart disease.
- Some of the gap was offset by similar mortality rates from cancer and Alzheimer's disease and increasing maternal deaths among women.
- The majority of unintentional injuries were drug overdoses.
"The increase in overdose deaths, homicide and suicide underscore twin crises of deaths from despair and firearm violence," the authors wrote.