The Library
Why men have shorter lives than women : effects of resource availability, infectious disease, and senescence
Tools
Møller, A. P., Fincher, Corey L. and Thornhill, R. (2009) Why men have shorter lives than women : effects of resource availability, infectious disease, and senescence. American Journal of Human Biology, Volume 21 (Number 3). pp. 357-364. doi:10.1002/ajhb.20879 ISSN 1042-0533.
Research output not available from this repository.
Request-a-Copy directly from author or use local Library Get it For Me service.
Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.20879
Abstract
Senescence arises from age-specific deterioration of the soma as a consequence of optimization of life history, and such effects of senescence should appear when comparing species that differ in intensity of sexual selection, as well as when comparing, within a species, the two sexes that often differ in intensity of sexual selection. However, any extrinsic cause of mortality that reduces life expectancy will reduce the possibility of detecting sex-specific differences in senescence. We investigated geographical variation in human sex differences in longevity across 121 countries to test whether differences in sexual competition for limiting resources, reflecting intensity of sexual selection, affected sex differences in longevity. Men on average lived 5 years shorter than women. High rates of childhood morbidity and mortality reduced the sex difference in longevity, while increased overall longevity increased the sex difference in longevity. Increased resource availability estimated from gross domestic product per capita reduced the sex difference in longevity, accounting for 10% of the variance, while there was no additional effect of income inequality as reflected by the Gini coefficient. In a separate analysis of sex differences in longevity among the states of the US, there was a strong effect of the Gini coefficient on sex difference in longevity, with the negative effect on male longevity being stronger than that on female longevity. In contrast, there was only a marginal effect of average household income. Thus, there was evidence of increased competition for resources contributing to increased sex differences in longevity within a single nation.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Psychology | ||||
Journal or Publication Title: | American Journal of Human Biology | ||||
Publisher: | John Wiley & Sons, Inc. | ||||
ISSN: | 1042-0533 | ||||
Official Date: | May 2009 | ||||
Dates: |
|
||||
Volume: | Volume 21 | ||||
Number: | Number 3 | ||||
Page Range: | pp. 357-364 | ||||
DOI: | 10.1002/ajhb.20879 | ||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
Request changes or add full text files to a record
Repository staff actions (login required)
View Item |