Essay on the Sex Differences in Mortality of a Population

It has been observed that in most countries of the world, mortality conditions differ for males and females. The general experience is that females have an overall advantage over males with respect to mortality.

The exceptions to this rule are India and Bangladesh. As is evident in for most countries, the average expectation of life at birth is higher for females than for males. Table 7.1 also indicates that the gap between the average expectation of life for females and males is wider in the developed than in the developing countries.

This difference ranges between 5.4 and 11.7 years for the developed countries and between 0.3 and 8.0 for the developing countries. For Sri Lanka and India, Pakistan only in very recent years has the female expectation of life been observed to be higher than the male expectation of life?

Even as recently as 1962, male and female average expectation of life at birth in Sri Lanka was 61.9 years and 61.4 years respectively. The difference was even greater in 1952, the corresponding figures being 57.6 years for males and 55.5 years for females.

It may, therefore, be concluded that while the mortality conditions for the entire country were generally improving in Sri Lanka, females profited from this general improvement to a greater extent than males.

In India, though the female expectation of life at birth was always lower than that of males, it is now only slightly higher.

While the difference between the two was 1.5 years during 1961- 1970, it was only 0.4 years during 1978-1980. For 1986-91 the expectation of life was 59.1 years for females and 58.1 years for males.

The extent of the difference between the male and female average expectation of life at birth is another point of interest. Around 1900, this difference in favour of females ranged between 0.6 (Italy) and 3.9 (England and Wales).

Around 1971, this difference ranged between 5.20 (Japan) and 10.00 (USSR). Thus, in developed countries over a period of about 70 years, the gap between female and male average life expectancy has widened.

In most countries of the world, the crude death rate as well as the age specific death rates is higher for males than for females. There is a great deal of evidence to indicate that, as far as mortality is concerned, males are at a definite disadvantage.

The phenomenon of male and female longevity has been studied by several social scientists. John Graunt, the father of demography, had observed as far back as the seventeenth century: “Physicians have two Women patients to one Man, and yet more Men die than Women.”

The question which has been investigated by some demographers is whether these differences between females and males are biologically determined or whether they arise because of the different roles played by them in society.

Francis Madigan studied the life records of Roman Catholic native born; white American priests above the age of 15 thus controlling, as far as possible, the social and cultural factors might cause any sex differentials in mortality, and making the two groups as homogeneous as possible.

He arrived at the conclusion that biological factors played, by far, the main role in the different mortality of males and females. When infant mortality rates for males and females at various ages are studied, further proof of the sex differentials in mortality being caused by biological factors becomes available.

A study of in the previous Chapter on “Population Structure and Characteristics” also indicates that infant mortality rates have been lower for females than for males in several countries, such as the United States of America, Japan, the United Kingdom, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, West Malaysia and even Pakistan.

The infant mortality rates for those under one day of age and those who were between one and six days old may also be observed to be lower for females than for males.

During these early periods of life, biological factors are more operative than environmental factors and therefore, deaths due to congenital malformation, birth injuries, immaturity and certain diseases of early infancy are significantly higher for males than for females at these ages.

The question, however, is: What are the underlying factors which are responsible for the widening gap between female and male longevity? Is it again the constitutional difference between man and woman, which equips the female with better resistance to degenerative diseases?

Social scientists like Esterline and Conrad conclude that there is little to support a biological explanation of the recent gaps between female and male longevity. In their opinion, the reason may be traced to the different roles played by them in society.

It is pointed out that man, as the breadwinner of the family, has to undergo more physical and emotional stresses and strains; and therefore a great deal of his physical as well as mental energy is spent in competitive struggle to maintain a higher standard of living and achieving higher social status.

It is argue that the age at retirement also presents different problems for males and female While for the typical housewife there is practically no change in h routine and habits throughout her life-time, retirement involve drastic changes in the life of the breadwinner and head of the family.

He has to face a loss of status and the prospect of an inaction life. These developments have significant repercussions on h emotional and physical well-being.

This question regarding the longevity of females and males, however, has yet to be fully answered. More extensive research, covering both the biologic aspects of the problem, will have to be conducted before any fir conclusion can be arrived at.

It is for this reason that any meaningful study of mortality has to be undertaken with respect to both age and sex, and the data cross- classified accordingly.

The age specific death rate is a measure that is most appropriate for this purpose, and may be defined as the number of deaths of persons of a given age per 1,000 during a given year. The computation is similar to that of the crude death rate.

It may be observed that the age specific death rates are higher at age 0 than at other ages for all countries, irrespective of whether the country is developed or developing.

The death rate suddenly drops for the age group 1-4 and then gradually decreases up to the age group 10-14. For almost all the countries, the lowest values of the age specific death rates are observed for the age group 10-14.

After age 14, the values of the age specific death rates gradually increase up to age 50 or 55, and then rise steeply at the higher ages. It may be observed from that the typical age specific mortality curve in countries of high mortality is roughly U-shaped, which indicates that mortality is very high at both the extremes of the life span.

The shape of the age specific mortality curve of countries with low mortality is roughly J-shaped, the difference in the shape of the two curves being due to the difference in the infant mortality rate of these two countries.

In countries with low mortality rates extend over a large number of age groups. A similar pattern of the age specific mortality curve is observed for females, the only difference being that the values of the age specific death rates are lower for most of the age groups because of lower female mortality.