A WHO report reveals what drives women to live longer than men

Men are much more likely than women to die from preventable and treatable diseases, suicides, AIDS, homicides and road accidents, according to the report World Health Statistics 2019, published this Friday by the World Health Organization. WHO).

The report, which breaks down the figures by bad for the first time, concludes that women are living longer than men, particularly in rich countries. This gap between the life expectancy of men and women is reduced when women do not have the ability to access health services.

In low-income countries, where benefits are lower, 1 in 41 women die of maternal causes, compared to 1 in 3,300 in high-income countries. In more than 90 percent of low-income countries, there are fewer than four nurses and midwives per 1,000 population.

According to the WHO, however, when men and women face the same disease, men use fewer health resources at their fingertips.

In countries where the HIV epidemic is widespread, for example, men are less likely than women to be tested, to receive antiretroviral treatment and to die from AIDS-related illnesses. Similarly, men with tuberculosis are less likely to see their doctor than women.

Of the 40 leading causes of death included in the study, 33 affect men's life expectancy more than women. In 2016, the probability that a person aged 30 died of a noncommunicable disease before the age of 70 was 44% higher in men than in women.

Overall death rates for suicide were 75% higher for men than for women in 2016. The number of road-crash deaths has more than doubled in men compared to women over 15, and homicides in women men quadrupled those of women, estimates the WHO.

In contrast, between 2000 and 2016, life expectancy at birth increased 5.5 years from 66.5 to 72 years. Life expectancy in good health at birth (life expectancy in good health) increased from 58.5 years in 2000 to 63.3 years in 2016.

WHO data, released on the occasion of World Health Day, which takes place every April 7, indicate that life expectancy is still "heavily affected" by income . In low-income countries, life expectancy is 18.1 years lower than in rich countries. One in every 14 children born in a low-income country will die before the age of five.

"One of the goals of the WHO is that an extra one billion people benefit from universal health coverage by 2023. This means improving access to services and ensuring what they are accessible, affordable and effective for all, regardless of their gender. Data by age, gender and income group are essential to understand who is late and why ", said the Director General of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.