Women live longer, but suffer worse health than men

Women live longer in worse health than men, a Lancet study has found, because diseases that disproportionately affect men are more deadly.

Back pain, depression and dementia drive women to suffer more years of disability, while men are more likely to die prematurely from heart attacks, lung cancer and kidney disease, a 30year global analysis has found.

Experts warned that little progress had been made since the 1990s to address the “uneven” disparities in health.

Scientists at the Universities of Washington and California assessed the 20 leading causes of disease worldwide and found that the differences between the sexes first start to emerge in puberty before widening with time.

Men are more likely to have health conditions that lead to premature death, while women live longer so face higher levels of illness and disability throughout their lives. Women suffered more years of poor health with illnesses like lower back pain, around 1.3pc of years women live on average versus 0.79pc for men. There were similar trends for depression.

Men were disproportionately affected by 13 of the 20 conditions, but they were more likely to lead to premature deaths, and included, road injuries, heart diseases, and respiratory and liver diseases.

Dr Luisa Sorio Flor, senior author from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), University of Washington, said the report showed that “global progress on health has been uneven”. (© Telegraph Media Group Ltd 2024)