A report from the World Health Organisation (WHO) on world health statistics revealed that the global life expectancy increased by 5.5 years to 72.0 years in 16 years from 2010, while healthy life expectancy increased by 4.8 years to 63.3 years.
The likelihood of women dying during childbirth has grossly reduced because skilled health personnel attended to more births unlike in the past. Efforts to reduce neonatal deaths and deaths in children aged under 5 years are underway and childhood stunting has been on the decline. Despite this earnest and conscientious activity, it was estimated that 303,000 maternal deaths and deaths of 5.4 million children aged under 5 years occurred globally in 2015 and 2017 respectively.
Consequently, to curb the rate of infectious diseases, vaccination coverage rates increased while incidence rates for several infectious diseases, prevalence of tobacco smoking, exposure to environmental risks and premature NCD mortality decreased at the global level.
Life expectancy at birth in low-income countries is lower than recorded in high-income countries. It was gathered that in low-income countries, life expectancy at birth is 18.1 years lower than in high-income countries—the difference is attributable to preventable and treatable conditions.
As a result of the long-term nutritional deprivation in children in low-income countries, more than a third of them are stunted (short for their age), and one child out of every 14 born will die before his or her fifth birthday.
Maternal deaths contributed more to the differences in life expectancy in low-income countries between men and women than any other single cause. At least there is 1 death from maternal causes out of every 41 women who die. Such deaths rarely occur in upper-middle and high-income countries.
As at 2016, life expectancy in men was 4.4 years lower than for women. A major causative factor for the lower life expectancy for men was the high death rates due to cardiovascular diseases, road injuries, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and stroke.
Generally, men are more exposed to increased occupational risks, they have higher prevalence of tobacco use and they have higher per capita consumption of alcohol. Also, unlike women, men use health services less, even after taking into account reproductive-related consultations. This health gap between men and women is widest in high-income countries.
Between 2000 and 2016, the global life expectancy at birth, for both male and female combined, increased by 5.5 years, from 66.5 to 72.0 years. Also, healthy life expectancy (the number of years lived in full health) also increased from 58.5 years in 2000 to 63.3 years in 2016.
Healthy life expectancy is greater in women (64.8) than in men (62.0 years) at birth and at age 60 years, it is 16.8 years and 14.8 years respectively for women and men. However, the number of equivalent years of full health lost through living in poor health from birth is also greater in women than in men (9.5 versus 7.8 years).
In 2019, it was estimated that more than 141 million children were born: 73 million boys and 68 million girls. Recent mortality risks showed that boys will live 4.4 years less than girls: an average of 69.8 years in boys and an average of 74.2 years in girls.
Although the sex ratio at birth has been in the range of 105– 110 males to every 100 females globally, mortality rates are higher in males; hence, the ratio changes as the population ages. For instance, in 2016, there were 100 men for every 100 women between the ages of 50–54 years, and 95 men for every 100 women between the ages of 60–64 years; and this continue to fall as the ages increase.
Although, the incidence of different diseases varying with age is another reason why women live longer than men, some diseases can be more common in women. For example, the lifetime risk for Alzheimer disease is greater in women than in men, partly because more women survive to ages at which the disease most commonly occurs, and women also appear to be more susceptible to the disease in some locations.
Major factors affecting life expectancy between males and females
Several conditions contributed to the reduced life expectancy of males compared to that of females. Of the 40 leading causes of death, 33 contribute more to reduced life expectancy in males than in females. These are :ischaemic heart disease (0.84 years), road injuries (0.47), lung cancers (0.40), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (0.36), stroke (0.32), cirrhosis of the liver (0.27), tuberculosis (TB) (0.23), prostate cancer (0.22) and interpersonal violence (0.21).
Unlike men, breast cancer (0.30 years), maternal conditions (0.23) and cervical cancer (0.15) are the causes of death that mostly reduce female global life expectancy.
“Some of the differences in mortality rates and life expectancy are due to biological sex differences between females and males. For example, X-linked immune regulators may enhance immune responses in female children, resulting in reduced mortality among girls aged under 5 years”, the World Health Statistics reports.
Also, the income level is a major factor that affects life expectancy at birth. The report showed that the life expectancy at birth in low-income countries (62.7 years) is years lower than in high-income countries (80.8 years). Most of the people who die in high-income countries are old; whereas, in low-income countries, almost 1 in 3 deaths are of children aged under 5 years.
