RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Mortality Data Suggests that Men Are More Fragile but Women Age Faster
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 179846
DO 10.1101/179846
A1 Peter Lenart
A1 Daniela Kuruczova
A1 Julie Bienertová-Vašků
YR 2017
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/08/23/179846.abstract
AB Although women on average live longer than men, differences in the pace of ageing are relatively unstudied and remain controversial. We thus employ mathematical methods previously established in model organisms to compare the pace of ageing between the sexes using freely available mortality data from 37 countries. Surprisingly, we found that the mortality rates of women almost universally increase faster than those of men, which is equivalent to faster ageing. This finding implies that the gap in life expectancy should continue to close with progress in healthcare since the longer lifespan of women is mainly due to the higher “starting” mortality of men. Our results may also help explain the mortality–morbidity paradox, i.e. why women live longer but are sicker than men.