Contributions of age groups and causes of death to the sex gap in lifespan variation in Europe

Abstract

Much less is known about the sex gap in lifespan variation, which reflects inequalities in the length of life, than about the sex gap in life expectancy (average length of life). We examined the contributions of age groups and causes of death to the sex gap in lifespan variation for 28 European countries, grouped into five European regions. In 2010–15, males in Europe displayed a 6.8-year-lower life expectancy and a 2.3-year-higher standard deviation in lifespan than females, with clear regional differences. Sex differences in lifespan variation are attributable largely to higher external mortality among males aged 30–39, whereas sex differences in life expectancy are due predominantly to higher smoking-related and cardiovascular disease mortality among males aged 60–69. The distinct findings for the sex gap in lifespan variation and the sex gap in life expectancy provide additional insights into the survival differences between the sexes.

Keywords:

• sex gap
• lifespan variation
• life expectancy
• Europe
• cause-specific mortality

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Please direct all correspondence to Jesús-Daniel Zazueta-Borboa, Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute–KNAW, Lange Houtstraat 19, 2511 CV The Hague, The Netherlands; or by E-mail: [email protected].

2 Jesús-Daniel Zazueta-Borboa is based at the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (KNAW/University of Groningen) in the Netherlands. José Manuel Aburto is based in the Department of Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK; the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science, Department of Sociology and Nuffield College at the University of Oxford, UK; and the Interdisciplinary Centre on Population Dynamics, University of Southern Denmark. Iñaki Permanyer is based at ICREA (Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies) and at the Centre for Demographic Studies, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain. Virginia Zarulli is based at the Interdisciplinary Centre on Population Dynamics, University of Southern Denmark. Fanny Janssen is based at the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (KNAW/University of Groningen) and the Population Research Centre, Faculty of Spatial Sciences, University of Groningen, both in the Netherlands.

3 Data sharing statement: The data on which this study is based are available from the web pages of the Human Mortality Database (www.mortality.org), the Human Cause-of-Death Database (www.causesofdeath.org), and the World Health Organization Mortality Database (www.who.int/data/data-collection-tools/who-mortality-database). The R code and the data selections used as input for the figures and tables will be made available in the Github repository of the first author (https://github.com/JDZazueta/Sex-gap-in-Lifespan-Variation-PopStudies).

4 Funding: Jesús-Daniel Zazueta-Borboa is grateful to the Interdisciplinary Centre on Population Dynamics (CPop) for sponsoring his studies at the European Doctoral School of Demography (EDSD) 2019–20. The master’s thesis that was written as part of the EDSD forms the basis of the current manuscript. Jesús-Daniel Zazueta-Borboa and Fanny Janssen also acknowledge funding from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) in relation to the research project ‘Forecasting future socio-economic inequalities in longevity: the impact of lifestyle “epidemics”’, under grant number VIC.191.019; see www.futurelongevitybyeducation.coms. José Manuel Aburto acknowledges support from the British Academy’s Newton International Fellowship NIFBA19/190679 and the Leverhulme Trust (Large Centre Grant). Iñaki Permanyer acknowledges support from the European Research Council (grant number 864616-HEALIN).