Do male or female labs live longer

Why chocolate labs dont live as long as other retrievers

Coat color has previously been linked with health in some animals. For example, some researchers suspect that the gene that causes black fur in wolves could also be related to reducing inflammation and fighting infection.

Research in humans has suggested a link between inflammation and both life expectancy and quality of life, McGreevy said. Perhaps by a similar process, the repetitive inflammatory skin and ear infections to which we found chocolate dogs prone accumulate to create an immunological burden that effectively shortens their lives.

The researchers noted that coat color in some dog breeds has been associated with aggression, as well as markers for higher rates of deafness and blindness.

Overall, labs were also one of the most obese dog breeds, the study found. Nearly nine percent of the U.K. labs were overweight or obese. Notably, male dogs who had been neutered were more likely to be obese (11.4 percent of neutered males versus four percent for intact males), though researchers noted that neutering has health benefits as well, lowering the risk of testicular disease and other disorders. Neutering wasnt linked to obesity in female labs.

The researchers concluded that the finding might help vets more quickly identify potential health problems, and ideally, affect breeding practices to produce healthier, longer-living dogs. "Labrador retrievers are reportedly prone to many disorders, but accurate information about how common certain health problems are in the general pet population is lacking, McGreevy said.

Why do women live longer than men?

Women tend to live longer than men. In 2021, this difference amounted to a 5-year gap in global life expectancy: the average life expectancy was 73.8 years for women versus 68.4 years for men.

What causes these differences? Is it because women outlive men at old ages? Or because young men are more likely to experience accidents and violent deaths?

In this article, well look into the sex gap in life expectancy: how it arises, how it varies around the world and how it has shifted over generations.

The sex gap in life expectancy is not a constant

Women tend to outlive men around the world.

You can see the difference from the chart below. It compares female and male life expectancy across countries. Male life expectancy is shown on the horizontal axis and female life expectancy on the vertical axis.

All countries lie above the diagonal line, meaning female life expectancy is higher.

But the chart also shows that the gap varies between countries: some are much further from the line than others.

We can also see this in the map below. In some countries, like Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, the gap is large more than 10 years in 2021.

In other countries, such as Nigeria, it is less than 2 years.¹

The next chartshows how the sex gap has changed over time.

Large spikes are visible during major wars, reflecting the fact that many young men died then.

You can also see that the gap gradually widened in many countries over the twentieth century, but has narrowed again in recent decades.

These charts show that the sex gap in life expectancy is not a constant. It varies between countries and has changed over time.

But why does this happen? And where does this gap come from?

A refresher on period life expectancy and what it means

Before we dive into the reasons for the sex gap in life expectancy, lets consider how life expectancy is measured.

In this article, the data refers to the period life expectancy. This is a metric that summarizes death rates across all age groups in one particular year.

For a given year, it represents the average lifespan for a hypothetical group of people, if they experienced the same age-specific death rates throughout their whole lives as the age-specific death rates seen in that particular year.

This means it is directly influenced by factors that affect death rates, such as changes in living standards, public health and medicine, behaviors, and events like wars and pandemics.

You can read more about this here:

"Life Expectancy" What does this actually mean?

How is life expectancy calculated, what does it mean, and whats the difference between period and cohort life expectancy?

Additionally, the data in the article refers to the average difference in life expectancy of course, a share of men live longer than women, across countries.

The sex gap in life expectancy comes from gaps in death rates across age groups

The sex gap in life expectancy comes from sex differences in death rates across age groups infants, youth, and older people.

Lets look through them one at a time.

Infant death rates tend to be higher among boys than girls

The sex gap in life expectancy begins at birth, as newborn boys have a higher probability of death than newborn girls.

Boys are more likely to be born premature;²and they also have higher death rates in the first week of life.³ This gap continues throughout infancy.

You can see this in the chart, where infant death rates in girls are shown on the horizontal axis, and death rates in boys are shown on the vertical axis.

In 2021, all countries are above the diagonal line, which shows that infant death rates were higher in boys.⁴

The sex gap in infant death rates is due to a range of factors.⁵

One key reason is that boys tend to be more vulnerable to infectious diseases, which may be due to a less developed immune system.⁶ Another is that boys are more susceptible to some genetic disorders due to having only one X chromosome.⁷

Youth death rates tend to be higher among men than women

After childhood, death rates rise due to accidents, violence, suicides, poisonings, and other external causes of death.⁸

These causes of death tend to be more common among men than women which widens the sex gap in life expectancy.

The chart shows the gap in overall death rates at age 25, as an example the gap in death rates is also seen at other ages.

As before, most countries are found above the diagonal line, which means death rates are higher among men.

Older age death rates tend to be higher among men than women

The sex gap in life expectancy is also sustained at older ages.

As people grow older, death rates rise steeply from a range of causes, including respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, infections, cancers, and autoimmune diseases. Men tend to have higher prevalence rates and death rates from these conditions, which further contributes to the gap in life expectancy.⁹

These differences are partly due to gender differences in health behaviors, such as smoking, alcohol, and drug use, and occupational risks which tend to be more common in men and have growing consequences with age.¹⁰

As before, in 2021, all countries are above the diagonal line, which means death rates are higher in men than women.

The reasons for the sex gap in life expectancy have shifted over time

So far, weve seen that the death rate in males is higher among infants, young people, and older people.

But how much do these differences contribute to the overall gap in life expectancy? And how has this changed over time?

In a recent study by Virginia Zarulli et al. in 2021¹¹, the authors show how different age groups contribute to the gap.

This is shown in the chart below for France, which has long-term mortality data.

The total sex gap in life expectancy is shown as the total height of the curve. The stacked areas show how the gap arises from sex differences in death rates in each age group.

You can see that both the overall sex gap in life expectancy and its composition have changed over time.

Before 1900, half of the gap was due to sex differences in mortality among infants.

During the World Wars, the gap spiked due to a surge in death rates in young men.

But, over the twentieth century, the gap also widened gradually. As the chart shows, this came from sex differences in mortality in youth and older ages specifically.

Research suggests that the rise in smoking which was especially prevalent among men was a significant contributor to this widening gap.¹² As smoking has fallen, the gap has narrowed.

You can see that the sources of the gap have shifted over time: most of the gap now comes from middle and older age death rates, with infant and child death rates making only a small contribution.

The chart below shows that there are also differences between countries. In Russia and Poland, for example, the overall sex gap in life expectancy is still large,due to higher death rates in young and middle aged men than women.

You can use the settings to explore this data for other countries.

Conclusion

The sex gap in life expectancy begins at birth: newborn boys have higher death rates than newborn girls, as theyre more vulnerable to diseases and genetic disorders.

It continues in youth, when boys have a higher death rate than girls, typically due to violence and accidents.

Its sustained at older ages when men have higher death rates than women from chronic health conditions, which are partly due to higher rates of smoking, alcohol, and drug use.

As there are many reasons for the sex gap in life expectancy, its size varies between countries and has shifted over time.

In the past, gender differences in infant mortality were the leading cause of the gap in life expectancy. But now, differences at older ages are a larger contributor to the gap in life expectancy.

Acknowledgements

Edouard Mathieu, Max Roser, and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina provided valuable feedback that improved this article.

Saloni Dattani and Lucas Rods-Guirao (2023) - Why do women live longer than men? Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: 'https://ourworldindata.org/why-do-women-live-longer-than-men' [Online Resource]

@article{owid-why-do-women-live-longer-than-men,    author = {Saloni Dattani and Lucas Rods-Guirao},    title = {Why do women live longer than men?},    journal = {Our World in Data},    year = {2023},    note = {https://ourworldindata.org/why-do-women-live-longer-than-men}}

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Why Do Women Live Longer Than Men?

The numbers dont lie: women tend to live longer than men. The average American man will live to age 76, according to the latest CDC figures, while the average woman in America will live to age 81.

And a womans extra years tend to be healthy ones. The World Health Organizations HALE index, which calculates the number of years a man or woman can expect to live without a major disease or injury, finds that American men can look forward to 67 healthy years, while American women will enjoy 70 years of full heath.

This male-female lifespan gap is not a new phenomenon; experts have known about it for decades. Its also not restricted to Americans. This gender gap in life expectancy is true for all societies, and it is also true for the great apes, says Dr. Perminder Sachdev, a professor of neuropsychiatry at the University of New South Wales in Australia who has studied human longevity.

Why do women tend to outlive men? Sachdev says there are a few popular theoriessome to do with biology, and some to do with behavior.

Men are more likely to smoke, drink excessively and be overweight, he says. They are also less likely to seek medical help early, and, if diagnosed with a disease, they are more likely to be non-adherent to treatment. On top of all that, he says, men are more likely to take life-threatening risks and to die in car accidents, brawls or gun fights.

Theres evidence that a mans biologynamely, his elevated levels of the male sex hormone testosteronemay lead him into the kind of trouble that could shorten his life. Research from Duke University has found that elevated testosterone levels are associated with risky behaviors.

Experts say testosterone may abbreviate a mans lifespan in other ways. Male sex hormones decrease immune function and increase the risk for cardiovascular diseases, says Kyung-Jin Min, a professor of biological sciences at Inha University in South Korea.

In a 2012 study published in the journal Current Biology, Min and his colleagues examined the historical health records of 81 Korean eunuchs: men who were castrated as children, and who therefore stopped producing much testosterone. They found the eunuchs tended to live about 14 to 19 years longer than uncastrated men who shared their same socio-economic status.

While the links between testosterone and immune function arent clear, Mins study points to lab research showing that testosterone may block the release of some disease-fighting immune cells. On the other hand, theres also a good amount of research linking low levels of testosterone to heart disease and poor health outcomes in men, so the relationships between testosterone and a mans health are complex.

It may well be that a mans hormones arent to blame; instead, a womans hormones may offer her some added lifespan benefits.

Estrogen appears to be protectiveit has been shown to have an antioxidant role, says Sachdev. A 2013 review in the International Journal of Endocrinology found evidence that estrogen can prevent the kind of DNA damage that leads to disease. That review also turned up evidence that estrogen can help maintain normal, healthy cell function.

These sorts of findings help explain the male-female longevity gap. But why would evolution and natural selection instill women, but not men, with these life-extending attributes?

All this is entirely speculative, Sachdev says, but it may have to do with a females historical role as child-rearer. Once children are born, men are disposable, he says. But the robust body of the mother is important for the survival of the offspring. A womans body has evolved to withstand and bounce back from the physical trauma of pregnancy and childbirth, as well as the demands of breastfeedingchallenges to which a males body is never exposed.

As the saying goes, what doesnt kill us makes us stronger. And for women, that strength may translate to a longer, healthier life.