Age gap is narrowing: By 2030, the average life expectancy for women will be 86.54 and for men 83.13.
By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant
Traditionally, women tend to outlive men by an average of seven years.
However, emerging data from United Nations Population Division tracking longevity worldwide from 1990 to 2020 indicate that that longevity gap is shrinking and will continue to narrow.
By 2030, the average life expectancy for women will be 86.54 and for men 83.13.
One of the reasons that age gap is narrowing has to do with men’s health improving. More men embracing healthy living such as eating right, eschewing tobacco products and exercising, is making a difference. For most people, this begins with patient education in the doctor’s office.
Generally speaking, women have been the family’s health champion. During their childbearing years, women become accustomed to regular doctor’s visits and are typically the parent who takes the children to pediatrician visits. This segue into healthcare can aid in keeping women on track with health. Stereotypically, men are not as proactive about professional healthcare. But as more men have become involved with their family’s healthcare, perhaps that interest in health extends to them as well.
Conventionally, women have connected with each other on a deeper emotional level with their friends and loved ones than the stereotypical man who relies only on himself. As men have begun to take more time to socialize and build strong relationships and connections than in the past, this factor may be helping with longevity.
In the past, women have been more concerned about maintaining a slim build through exercise and dieting than men. That may have helped more women with longevity, even if the reasons for exercise and healthful diet weren’t for the best reason of all: good health. But more men have become interested in exercise for health reasons and not just for sports performance while young.
Trish Levine, director of communication and marketing and director of health and wellness at Oswego YMCA, said that the organization currently has more male members than female members in the 13- to 24-year-old age group. From then on, the numbers are equal between the genders until age 50-plus, where nearly twice as many women join as men. But that is still an improvement, according to Levine.
“I have led group fitness classes and provided personal training and coaching for over 30 years,” she said. “In the past several years, especially following the pandemic, the increase in active older adult male group class participants has increased. In particular, we are seeing greater participation of men in our mind-body classes such as yoga, Pilates and tai chi.”
John Burger, 78 and a longtime Oswego YMCA member, is a certified strength and conditioning coach and fitness center volunteer. He refers to exercise as a “wonder drug” and that staying strong through the decades is vital.
“Cardio is crucial, but you want to enter old age — whatever old age is — with muscle,” Burger tells members.
Although many “diets” are not healthful, the awareness of food choices and the role of the family chef has helped women understand more about how food affects health. But in more recent years, men have begun educating themselves on nutrition.
“Fitness is one of the biggest aids in longevity next to the proper diet,” said Jill Murphy, personal trainer and co-owner of Mission Fitness in Syracuse. “Thirty minutes of moderate cardio a day has been proven to produce new brain cells, therefore promoting excellent brain health.
“Doing cardiovascular activity on a regular basis will increase the conditioning of your heart and lungs. The leading cause of death in the United States is heart disease, so when implementing fitness into your lifestyle you’re helping to combat this No. 1 killer.
“Exercise helps lower blood pressure, lower body fat and promotes healthy insulin levels when coupled with the proper diet and weight training will help increase the integrity of your bones, ligaments and tendons.”
Falls causing broken bones in older adults often begin a downward spiral in their health as they decondition and lose muscle tone while healing from the break. In fact, 20% to 30% of adults 65-plus who experience a fractured hip die within 12 months, according to a 2009 study published by The Journal of the American Medical Association. Fortunately, it’s possible to reduce the risk of bone breaks.
“Weight training helps prevent osteoporosis,” Murphy said. “By increasing bone density alone, that would prevent broken bones with a fall. Also, by having strong muscles through proper weight training and a strong heart and lungs through cardiovascular exercise you have a much less chance of an injury doing everyday movements like walking up and down the stairs, gardening, shoveling and mowing the lawn just to name a few.”
Lauren Hosek, certified strength and conditioning specialists, exercise physiologist and Vitality Fitness Program coordinator at SUNY Upstate Medical University, also promotes exercise for longevity.
“The fitness field is rapidly growing as more research about exercise and longevity is developed,” Hosek said.
She said that the benefits of exercise include improved heart health, “sleep quality, mood, cognitive function, memory and immune and digestive system function. These benefits lead to overall health and can help to ward off certain risk factors for mortality. We know that exercise reduces the chances of such risk factors including hypertension, Type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease, stroke and some cancers.”
Although these health conditions can be managed, avoiding them bodes well for greater longevity.
Exercise helps improve health at the cellular level. Hosek explained that as people age, the molecular caps on the end of the chromosomes — telomeres — shorten.
“Research has found that individuals who exercise regularly have longer telomeres, comparable to those who are multiple years younger, while those who are sedentary have shorter telomeres, reflecting their biological age,” Hosek said.
Regular exercise also promotes better quality of life, an effect that Hosek has noticed at the Vitality Fitness Program at Upstate. Even among the older adult population, exercise increases independence and greater ease in participating in activities.
Engaging in risky behavior is another area which has in the past disproportionately involved men, whether the male-dominated dangerous occupations like commercial fishing, forestry, farming and construction; engagement in hobbies like motorcycling or base jumping; performing ill-advised stunts; or substance abuse.
Safety education and equipment are helping save lives, such as rollover protection structures on tractors that keep farmers safer. More men than women use tobacco (13.1% compared with 10.1% of women as of 2021, says the National Institute on Drug Abuse and between the two, men who smoke use more tobacco than women who smoke). However, fewer people overall use it currently. In addition, more women are engaging in dangerous occupations and activities, which statistically narrows the gender gap.
Although COVID-19 deaths and drug overdoses in the past few years have statistically widened the gender longevity gap according to a report in JAMA Internal Medicine, it’s likely that this anomaly will not affect the gap long-term and it’s likely women will on average outlive men.
Researchers have indicated that men’s Y chromosomes in cells linked to age-related disease and death may be why they tend to die younger than women. That’s why it’s especially important for men to make the necessary lifestyle changes to support good health.