The editorial, published in the British Medical Journal (2006, vol 332, no 7545), predicts that women on average will outlive men, even in third world countries, in 2006. The study authors expect this trend to be confirmed in the 2006 world health report. They believe that better health care, medical advances, and social change, rather than biological change, explains the shift in life expectancy. "We tend to forget that in many countries of the world women could expect, until recently, to live fewer years than men and that maternal mortality in particular remains a big killer," says researcher Danny Dorling, in a press release.
However, other health risks, such as smoking, may stop or even reverse this positive shift in women's life expectancy. "Greater emancipation has freed women to demand better health care and to behave more like men, and most importantly to smoke," the study authors write. "But even the life expectancy from birth may not be a permanent achievement, given that the largest remaining untapped market for cigarettes in the world is made up of women living in poorer countries."
Posted by Kristopher Foster on May 2, 2006 10:12 AM
