Men set to live as long as women, figures show

[4th law of robotics]

The gap between male and female life expectancy is closing and men could catch up by 2030, according to an adviser for the Office for National Statistics.

Prof Les Mayhew said the difference between the sexes peaked at nearly six years in the 1970s.

Life expectancy is going up all round, but the rates for men are increasing faster.

Plummeting smoking rates in men are thought to explain a lot of the change.

Prof Mayhew, a professor of statistics at Cass Business School, analysed life expectancy data in England and Wales. He was working out how long 30-year-olds could expect to live.

. . . . .

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17811732

I sincerely doubt it will ever catch up. The main thrust behind this seems to be that men are quitting smoking while women are starting (on average). This will necessarily lengthen men's lives while reducing women's.

Reducing the incidence of smoking is a fairly easy issue to address and that would then increase female longevity in the future.

The issues that lead to males living shorter lives are heavily ingrained societal beliefs and thus are less easily addressed. Ie: the general assumption of disposability leading to higher rates of suicide, drug abuse, homelessness, dangerous occupations, incarceration, death in wars, etc and significantly lower social spending per male to combat these problems than per female. Additionally an education system that seems to view boys as a problem to address leading to higher rates of drop outs and being shunted in to disciplinary/special education classrooms (lower education levels lead to poverty and that leads to shorter lives). And as of this moment there doesn't seem to be any interest in addressing any of these issues.

However I think this is an noteworthy trend.

[lumberjack_jeff]

1. Obviously, I think it would be a good thing, but like you, I'll believe it when I see it.

The factors that contribute to mortality of boys and young men are getting worse, not better.

[4th law of robotics]

3. Yeah, the gaps between men and women

on education, homelessness, drug abuse, suicide, imprisonment, longevity, and the like would cause a national outcry if even one of them were flipped around.

If all of them were I think the world would isolate us and do their best to forget we ever existed. Even countries that treat women horribly still have women living slightly longer than men.

Oh well. I guess sucking it up and dealing with all that without any sort of financial assistance plus the social stigma if you fail is yet another male privilege.

[Warren DeMontague]

2. So glad I never really smoked cigarettes.

Oh, I smoked a ton of pot in high school, too busy smoking that to smoke anything else, really.

Quitting that was a relative piece of cake.

My dad, OTOH, smoked camel unfiltereds (because 'real men' didn't need no p*ssy filter, that's why) and by the time he finally was able to quit, it was too late. Died of lung cancer, not much older than I am now.