A new global study has found that social change all across the world has had a positive impact on the health of the women, and that even in poorer countries they now have a longer life expectancy than men.
Researcher Danny Dorling and his colleagues found that while till recently, there was a huge gap in the life expectancy of men and women, and that a while a large number of women still died at childbirth, this was now changing due to a change in social conditions which has enabled women to demand better health care. They also said that this trend was not merely biological.
“We tend to forget that in many countries of the world women could expect, until recently, to live fewer years than men and that maternal death in particular remains a big killer,” the BMJ quoted them, as saying.
“We must remember, though, that life expectancy data apply from birth onwards, so the picture would be different in some countries if life expectancy from conception was considered. But even the life expectancy from birth may not be a permanent achievement, given that the largest remaining untapped market for cigarettes in the world is made up of women living in poorer countries,” they said.
This is likely to be confirmed at the 2006 world health report.