Gender differences in life expectancy and mortality

Levels and patterns of mortality by age, sex and race/color are among the most important indicators of health. Research shows that blacks and whites differ widely in their profiles of morbidity and mortality, but little is known about the sensitivity of interracial differences in mortality to different methods of estimation. This paper presents, compares and evaluates life tables by sex and race/color for all of Brazil, constructed on the basis of indirect demographic methods of estimation based on information regarding surviving children and mothers’ mortality (variants of the Brass indirect method). The data was taken from the Brazilian demographic censuses and nationally representative household surveys (PNADS). Information was also obtained by using direct methods, which combine statistics on reported deaths and intercensal growth rates. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each method and present confidence intervals for estimates of mortality by sex, age and race/color. Finally, we discuss the impact that racial reclassification may have on recent estimates.

In the framework of the unfavourable mortality trends observed in the former Soviet republics, Caucasian countries experience specific evolution. In this region, civil registration of vital events remains not complete. We re-estimated mortality levels and trends in Armenia and Georgia since the early 1980s, confirming specific mortality patterns, but similar in both countries. However, gender differences are greater in Georgia than in Armenia. The aim of this paper is to explore the reasons for these differences: looking at all ages, but more specifically at adult mortality for which data are more reliable and where we suspect a major role of alcohol-related mortality that is higher in Georgia than in Armenia.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the changes of perceived health expectancies of Chinese elderly from 1987 to 2010, and explore the gender differences in the change of health status. Based on nationally representative data, we calculated the perceived health expectancies of the Chinese elderly for both males and females, and made a comparison with the results of the perceived health expectancies of the elderly among 1987, 1992, 2000 and 2010. We found that the morbidity of the elderly was expanded from 1992 to 2000 and compressed from 1987 to 1992 and from 2000 to 2010, and found that the expansion in morbidity for females was more serious than that for males, even though the increase of life expectancy for females was much quicker than that of males. The changes of health status of the elderly, especially for females, were abnormal from 1992 to 2000. The change in social institutions should take some responsibility for the worsening of health for the elderly at that time.

This study attempts to answer several questions: has self-rated health (SRH) improved in Bangladesh; are life expectancy (LE) and healthy life expectancy (HLE) increasing in the same direction, and how much are the relative increases; and how can HLE be improved? We used data from the World Values Survey (WVS). The results show that perceived health improved between 1996 and 2002. For males, statistically significant increases in the expected number of years lived in good SRH were found, though life expectancy showed a decrease of about 3 to 6 months. Comparatively, males expected fewer life years spent in good health but a much larger proportion of expected life in good health than females. This was true only in 2002, however. Different states of health were also found to be associated with socio-demographic differences. Finally and most strikingly, in multivariate analyses, life satisfaction was the only factor found to have a significant positive and growing impact on SRH for males and females in both years, although in both years the impact was much more pronounced for females than for males. This demonstrates that individuals with life satisfaction are more likely to have good SRH. Therefore, greater emphasis should be placed on life satisfaction when efforts are made to improve SRH and HLE in Bangladesh.

Based on 2006 National Sampling Survey on Disability and 2007-2010 National Monitoring Survey, with the method of Fairlie non-linear decomposition, the study analyzes the gender differences in death level among people with disabilities in China, and explores contribution factors of differences, from the aspect of health and environment.The results as followed.
When classified by disability type or severity degree, the female’s risk is higher than male in more than half of the people, different from the situation among general population. Disability type and severity have effects upon the mode of gender difference. Difference among people with visual disability is the largest. The difference goes up along with the decrease of severity of disability.
The overall contribution of explanatory variables reduces the difference. Environmental factors make greater protection to male than to female.
Different sub-populations show different mode of contribution factors. The elderly and the unemployed rely on income and marital status significantly.
Age, employment, marital status and disability severity make remarkable contributions to the difference. With the control of other variables, age reduces the gap; employment, as well as with spouse show greater protection to male than to female; disability severity expands the gap.