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Study reveals cancer and heart diseases killing men early

Living

Heart conditions and cancer are among diseases that have lowered life expectancy for men, compared to women, a report has indicated.

The report dubbed World Health Statistics also ranked road accidents, chronic pulmonary disease, stroke, kidney diseases, tuberculosis, HIV/Aids and self-inflicted injury as other killers when it comes to men.

The cancers that men are highly prone to are those for the trachea, bronchus, lung, liver, stomach, prostate and oesophagus.

The report has been prepared by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and was released on Tuesday.

Women, on the other hand, are dying early of breast cancer, maternal conditions, cervical cancer and Alzheimer.

The report points out that since women live longer, then Alzheimer – a degenerative disease - is likely to affect them than men.

But WHO explained that the conditions are not necessarily the most important causes of death globally; rather, they are the ones that show the greatest difference between men and women’s life expectancy.

“For example, malaria is an important cause of death, but it has been ranked low because most malaria deaths occur in children, and death rates in male and female children are similar,” WHO said.

The report states that the difference between the life expectancy for men and women is 4.4 years.

“Based on recent mortality risks, boys will live on average to 69.8 years, while girls will live to 74.2 years,” reads the report.

It also notes that when both men and women hit the age of 60, women still have a higher life expectancy at that age than men.

Women can live 21.9 years beyond the 60-year mark compared to men who can live 19. “Women have a longer life expectancy than men at all ages,” the report states.

WHO also indicated that generally, the absolute difference in life expectancy decreased with age.

However, it stated that the proportional difference between the two increased between age one and 80.

“Women can expect to live 7.6 years longer than men at age 20, and 14 per cent longer at age 80,” reads the report.

WHO explained that some differences in life expectancy between men and women were due to biological reasons.

“Conditions can occur in both women and men, but their prevalence is influenced by biological sex differences. For example, death rates from ischemic heart disease are thought to be lower in women, partly because of higher levels of the hormone oestrogen, whereas TB infection rates may be higher in men, partly due to immunological reasons,” reads the report.

WHO says in some cases death rates are similar for men and women if they are exposed to the same risks.

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