The Age-Pattern of Sex Differences in Mortality Improvement

Benjamin Seligman, Stanford University
Gabi Greenberg, Stanford University
Shripad Tuljapurkar, Stanford University

We explore the contributions of different ages to increase in life expectancy in the G7 countries. We compare differences between males and females in these age patterns, as well as how the sexes differ in the age patterns of improvement (and contribution to life expectancy) in mortality from tobacco-related and unrelated causes. Analysis shows that, among the Western G7 countries, improvement in life expectancy for men is faster than that of women due to contributions from ages 40 to 80 beginning in the 1970s. In Japan, by contrast, this change does not occur. Using available cause-specific data for the US, we find that there is a clear difference in contributions to life expectancy improvement in this age range for lung cancer, which is closely tied to tobacco, whereas liver disease, which is not, and ischemic heart disease, which is influenced by tobacco use, do not show clear sex differences.