The Gender Gap in Life Expectancy in the United States and Deaths of Despair: Trends from 1979 to 2022.

ABSTRACT: The extent to which women outlive men in the U.S. has fluctuated over the 20th century, with periods of equalization, stagnation, and increase. Women's life expectancy advantage declined for roughly four decades but resurged after 2012. This coincided with an increase in deaths of despair (deaths due to suicide, alcohol, and drugs), for which rates are higher among men than women. We decompose the gender gap in life expectancy from 1979 to 2022 in the U.S. by cause of death and find that deaths of despair explain the vast majority of the resurgence of women's life expectancy advantage since 2012, while its contribution to trends before 2012 is small relative to cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, and other causes of death. Drug-related mortality drives almost all of the post-2012 growth f

SUBMITTER: Gonzalez-Velastin R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12692230 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature