Women's life spans in the USA are improving at a slower pace than men's and are shorter in many U.S. counties than they were 20 years ago, according to a report released Thursday.
The trend is cause for alarm even though women are still expected to outlive men by four years, says the report by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, a health research center at the University of Washington. The study is based on mortality data by age, sex and county from 1989 to 2009.
Life expectancy for U.S. men improved by 4.6 years on average, but only by 2.7 years for women. Life spans county to county across the USA range on average from 66.1 to 81.6 years for men and 73.5 to 86 years for women.
"A gain in life expectancy should be equal among men and women," says Ali Mokdad, director of the research team. "This is a wake-up call for all of us. It's tragic that in a country as wealthy as the United States, and with all the medical expertise we have, that so many girls will live shorter lives than their mothers."
Life expectancy has stopped improving or reversed for women since 1999 in 661 U.S. counties and in 166 counties for men. The declining rates appear in 84% of Oklahoma counties, 58% of Tennessee counties and 33% of Georgia counties.
A larger percentage of women than men are not adequately treating high blood pressure and high cholesterol, the researchers said.
"Women aren't as encouraged by their doctors to get medication to ward off heart disease," says physician Gina Lundberg, national spokeswoman for the American Heart Association, who is not associated with the study. "And many doctors don't treat their symptoms as aggressively as they do in men. They'll say you have an upset stomach and send you home."
Key reasons for the disparities are preventable causes of death, including tobacco, obesity and alcohol.
"Heart blockages progress faster in women who smoke," Lundberg says. "And studies show women who smoke who have heart attacks are more likely to die from the heart attack."
Across the country, there's nearly a 12-year gap in women's life spans. Women live the longest in Collier, Fla., (85.8) but had the shortest lifespans in McDowell, W.Va. (74.1). In 1989, the gap was 8.7 years.
"So much of this can be corrected," Mokdad says. "We need to do a better job educating people about lifestyle and getting good health care. The U.S. spends more on health care than any other country, and other countries are doing a better job than us."
For instance in Australia, life expectancy improved 12 years in both men and women from 1989 to 2009, Mokdad said. When it comes to lifespan, U.S. men rank 37th out of 196 countries, women rank 38th.
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