If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
It may be uncomfortable to ponder, but elderly ladies and gentlemen worldwide die of very similar causes, notably cardiovascular disease. Girls and boys also succumb to a similar set of illnesses, mostly infectious diseases. Yet the death differences are pronounced for young and middle-aged women and men, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle (large graphic). Women are more likely to die from tuberculosis, diarrhea, respiratory illnesses and nutritional deficiencies. Men perish from substance abuse, injuries, self-harm and violence. As with so many issues related to the sexes, cause of death is determined much more by social factors than by biology (small graphs).
Credit: Jen Christiansen; Source: “GBD Compare,” by Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, 2017. Accessed July 2017 http://vizhub.healthdata.org/gbd-compare
Subscribe to Support Independent Journalism
Great science journalism requires human expertise, time, effort and creativity. And it costs money. That’s why I and the journalists here at Scientific American hope you’ll join our community.
When you subscribe, you are supporting staff and freelance journalists who are passionate about telling science stories that are true, important and compelling. Our editors and reporters are often experts in their fields, which means they understand the nuances of big discoveries and can untangle the breakthroughs from the hype. With a subscription, you are also supporting rigorous fact-checking to ensure the words we publish are precise and accurate. And you’re supporting original illustrations, graphics and photos that bring you closer to an advanced laboratory, an ice sheet in Antarctica or a space mission in orbit. You’re helping us craft other types of high-quality journalism as well: Our newsletters are carefully written, edited and curated by staffers you have or will come to know and love. Our Science Quickly podcast is based on original reporting, collaboration with editors and scientists and exacting production.
Subscriptions keep this engine running so we can continue to deliver thoughtful, rigorous and independent science journalism to you. In an era of viral misinformation, this work is crucial. If you value what we do, I hope you’ll consider joining us as a subscriber
Thank you,
Jeanna Bryner, Editor in Chief, Scientific American
