Sociality, Hierarchy, Health Comparative Biodemography: A Collection of Papers (2014) / Chapter Skim
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15 The Male-Female Health-Survival Paradox: A Comparative Perspective on Sex Differences in Aging and Mortality--Susan C. Alberts, Elizabeth A. Archie, Laurence R. Gesquiere, Jeanne Altmann, James W. Vaupel, and Kaare Christensen
15 The Male-Female Health-Survival Paradox: A Comparative Perspective on Sex Differences in Aging and Mortality--Susan C. Alberts, Elizabeth A. Archie, Laurence R. Gesquiere, Jeanne Altmann, James W. Vaupel, and Kaare Christensen
Pages 339-364
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From page 339... ...
, and Japan found consistent but oppo ite sex differences in survival and health: Men had higher mortality s rates at all ages in all three countries, but men also exhibited a substantial advantage in handgrip strength and in activity of daily living at older ages -- phenotypes that in both sexes are positively correlated with survival (Oksuzyan et al., 2010)
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From page 340... ...
It is generally not clear whether sex differences in health also occur in populations that experience living conditions and cultures very different from contemporary Western societies. For instance, historical populations with very different cultural practices, such as low-risk male behavior combined with high fertility (and hence high risk of female mortality)
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. Data regarding the second element of the paradox, sex differences in health, are sparser than mortality data.
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First, we examine health and survival patterns in humans living in unusual demographic circumstances to determine whether they show a non-paradoxical pattern. Specifically, we summarize recent evidence on the health-survival paradox in a 20th century Russian population and on female survival advantages in the late 19th and early 20th century M ormon population and other historic and prehistoric populations.
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From page 343... ...
the female survival advantage was present prior to the 18th century using preliminary paleodemographic data. The Male-Female Health-Survival Pattern in a Contemporary Russian Population Life expectancy in Russia is lagging behind that in the United States and Europe, and this difference has been very pronounced since the 1960s (Shkolnikov and Meslé, 1996; Meslé, 2004; Oksuzyan et al., 2014)
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Sex Differences in Survival in the Late 19th and Early 20th Century Utah Population Behavioral factors have been proposed as a key source of female-male differences in mortality, with risk-taking behaviors -- including cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption -- occurring more frequently among men than among women. Cigarette smoking is the largest identifiable factor in explaining changing sex gaps in mortality, but it is well known that cigarette smoking alone cannot explain the sex difference in mortality; for instance, male non-smokers have higher mortality than female non-smokers (Wang and Preston, 2009)
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, while the difference was minimal for females, suggesting that male Mormons benefitted from a healthy lifestyle. Still, sex differences in cohort life expectancy at the age of 50 years were similar for individuals actively affiliated with the Mormon Church and for individuals living in the general population in Denmark and Sweden.
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From page 346... ...
Note that A, B, and C all pertain to mortality conditions in the specified decades, whereas the graphs in Figure 15-1 pertain to cohorts followed from birth through time. In contrast to the cohort life expectancy values in Figure 15-1, which reflect the lifespans of people born in various years, the period life expectancy values in Figure 15-2 are measures of mortality conditions in the specified decade.
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ALBERTS, ARCHIE, GESQUIERE, ALTMANN, VAUPEL, AND CHRISTENSEN 347 B Ratios 5 Sweden 2000s Sweden 1900s Japan 2000s 4 Russia 2000s USA 2000s Male−Female Gap 3 2 1 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 Age C Absolute Differences 0.12 Sweden 2000s Sweden 1900s Japan 2000s Russia 2000s USA 2000s 0.08 Male−Female Gap 0.04 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 Age FIGURE 15-2 Continued
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In France, as shown in Figure 15-2a, the gap rose to more than 8 years in the 1980s and then fell to 7.2 years in the first decade of this century -- with the rise in the gap entirely due to the rise in the gap in e65. The radical rise and recent fall in the gap can be seen in nearly all the countries in the Human Mortality Database.
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Hence, Boldsen believes that male life expectancy during the Mesolithic and N eolithic remained roughly constant, but that female life expectancy fell. Starting some 1,500 to 2,000 years ago in Northern Europe, in the Iron Age and thereafter, with increasing levels of trade and of manufacturing, Boldsen thinks that female survival improved more than male survival.
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This pattern was also true for two measures of individuals' social circumstances that are linked to health in human populations: social status and social connectedness (HoltLunstad et al., 2010)
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trichiuris egg count 2.5 140 0.2 120 2 0.15 100 1.5 80 0.1 1 60 0.05 0.5 40 0 0 20 0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20 25 1.2 1 G H I Annual incidence of injury High rank Connected Social connectedness 1 3 0.5 Social status 0.8 5 0.6 7 -0.5 0.4 9 Low rank Isolated 0.2 11 0 13 -1.5 0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20 Age in years Age in years Age in years FIGURE 15-3 Changes in health indicators and social circumstances as a function of age. NOTES: Presented for male (filled circles, solid line)
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Specifically, older animals were infected with a greater number of species with known pathogenic effects (GLMM including individual as a random factor; b for age effect = 0.032, p for age effect < 0.001; N = 232 samples from 90 adult females and 209 samples from
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trichiura (GLMM including individual as a random factor; b for age effect = 0.052; p for age effect < 0.01; 232 samples from 90 adult females and 209 samples from 68 adult males; Figure 15-3d)
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depends partly upon fighting ability and physical strength. In Amboseli, both sexes experience a decline in social status with age, but we saw a much steeper decline with age in male social status than in female social status (GLMM including
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. While both sexes experienced a decline in social connectedness with age, males exhibited a much steeper decline than females (GLMM including individual as a random factor: (b = –0.011, p < 0.035 for age effect, (b = 1.66, p < 0.0001 for sex difference, and (b = –0.14, p < 0.0001 for the sex-by-age interaction; N = 8,279 monthly rank values for 373 adult males and 19,410 value for 357 females; Figure 15-3i)
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From page 356... ...
First, we wished to probe the historical limits and extent of the paradox in human populations, by asking how universal is the female survival advantage -- one fundamental component of the paradox -- in historical and modern human populations. Second, we wished to provide an evolutionary context by asking whether components of the paradox occur in wild nonhuman primates.
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From page 357... ...
female survival advantage, albeit with periods and places in which the female survival advantage waned. Concomitant health data are not available for most human populations living before modern times, or for that matter for nonhuman primate populations.
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Our results call for comparative data on a broad, multifaceted set of noninvasive health measures that are strictly parallel in both humans and nonhuman primates, in order to more clearly understand the evolutionary history of the male-female health-survival paradox. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS All analyses presented here received major support from the National Institute on Aging through NIA P01-AG031719, and we thank Oliver Wisser at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research for producing Figure 15-2.
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. Social status predicts wound healing in wild baboons.
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. Sex differences in ageing in natural populations of vertebrates.
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. The male-female health-survival paradox and sex differences in cohort life expectancy in Utah, Denmark, and Sweden 1850-1910.
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. Declining sex differences in mortality from lung cancer in high-income nations.
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Working Paper. Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
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