Women live longer than men even during severe famines and epidemics.

ABSTRACT: Women in almost all modern populations live longer than men. Research to date provides evidence for both biological and social factors influencing this gender gap. Conditions when both men and women experience extremely high levels of mortality risk are unexplored sources of information. We investigate the survival of both sexes in seven populations under extreme conditions from famines, epidemics, and slavery. Women survived better than men: In all populations, they had lower mortality across almost all ages, and, with the exception of one slave population, they lived longer on average than men. Gender differences in infant mortality contributed the most to the gender gap in life expectancy, indicating that newborn girls were able to survive extreme mortality hazards better than newborn b

SUBMITTER: Zarulli V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5789901 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature