Sex Differences in Health: Evidence and Explanations 345TABLE 10.3 ESTIMATES OF 2010 LIFE EXPECTANCIES
AROUND THE WORLD
Male Female F:M
Difference
East
Bulgaria 69.7 77.2 7.5
Poland 71.9 80.1 8.2
Romania 69.2 76.4 7.2
Russia 59.5 73.2 13.7
West
Denmark 76.1 81 4.9
France 77.9 84.4 6.5
Ireland 75.8 81.2 5.4
Netherlands 76.9 82.3 5.4
Portugal 75.1 81.9 6.8
Developing Countries
Botswana 61.1 60.8 -.3
Cambodia 60.4 64.7 4.3
Haiti 59.7 63.1 3.4
Laos 54.8 59.2 4.4
Madagascar 61.3 65.3 4
Nepal 64.6 67.1 2.5
Rwanda 56.1 58.9 2.8
Somalia 48.1 51.9 3.8
Zimbabwe 48 47.1 -.9
Source: The World Factbook: 2010.Eastern than in Western Europe. The sex dif-
ference is more variable in developing coun-
tries where the life span is much shorter. In
developing countries, the status differential
between women and men is even greater,
leading to high rates of female infanticide,
pregnancy-related deaths, and poverty-
related mortality (Murphy, 2003).Leading Causes of Death
At the turn of the 20th century, women and
men were most likely to die from infectious
diseases, such as tuberculosis, influenza,pneumonia, and diphtheria. Today, with the
exception of AIDS and some recent infection
epidemics (e.g., H1N1), people are less likely
to die from communicable diseases. Instead,
people die from diseases in which lifestyle fac-
tors play a role. The leading causes of death in
the United States are shown in Table 10.4. The
top-most leading cause of death for both men
and women—White, Black, and Hispanic—is
coronary heart disease. See Sidebar 10.1 for
an elaboration on the role of sex and gender
in heart disease. The second leading cause of
death is cancer, followed by cerebrovascular
disease (i.e., stroke), and chronic lower respi-
ratory disease (i.e., emphysema), and then ac-
cidents. The etiology of these diseases is much
more complicated than the etiology of an in-
fectious disease. There are a variety of factors
that play a role in the top five leading causes
of death, many of which include behavioral
factors, such as smoking, diet, drinking, and
driving while intoxicated. The most notewor-
thy feature of Table 10.4 is that the death rate
for 12 of the top 15 causes is higher in males
than females. Alzheimer’s disease is the only
cause of death that has a higher mortality rate
for women, and this extends across Whites,
Blacks, and Hispanics. The largest sex differ-
ences appear for accidents, suicide, liver dis-
ease, Parkinson’s disease, and homicide. In
the case of diabetes, the direction of the sex
difference depends on race: Men have higher
rates of diabetes than women among Whites,
but women have higher rates than men
among Blacks and Hispanics. This is likely
due to the high rate of obesity among Black
and Hispanic women.
The leading causes of death are in-
fluenced by a combination of age, race,
and sex. The leading cause of death for
Hispanic men and women, White men
and women, and Black women ages 15
to 24 is accidents. For Black men of ageM10_HELG0185_04_SE_C10.indd 345 6/21/11 8:54 AM