Researchers from Syracuse University and the University of Michigan have recently published a study that shows women live longer lives than men, but are also more likely to develop disabilities later in life.

The three researchers involved in the study analyzed data from studies conducted in 1982, 2004 and 2011, and the study’s participants were ages 65 and older and on Medicare, according to the study.

Douglas Wolf, a researcher on the study and a professor of public administration and international affairs at SU, said one of the explicit goals of the project was to make valid comparisons to the earlier data that had already been available.

“This notion of active life expectancy has been an active area of research since the ‘80s and we saw this as an opportunity not only to produce up-to-date findings but also show how they relate to long-term trends over a 30-year period,” Wolf said.

The study found that the life expectancy of men and women continued to rise over the years, but that men’s life expectancy had increased at a higher rate than women’s.

“The great improvements over the 20th century that go along with better hygiene, better medical treatment, more wealth and so on produced dramatic improvement, but that can’t go on forever,” Wolf said, explaining why the increase in women’s life expectancy has slowed.

Wolf added that it’s possible that women are reaching the limit to human life expectancy faster.

Other possibilities, Wolf said, include biological, lifestyle and behavioral differences between women and men.

“Women used to smoke at much lower rates than men but then they started to smoke more, which is not a smart thing to do. So they lost ground in that respect.” Wolf said.

Sandra Lane, a professor of public health and anthropology at SU, said she would also predict women’s slowing life expectancy to be a result of smoking.

Lane added that it’s also possible that women’s life expectancy is increasing more slowly since women are now working in positions that are high-risk for death and injury. For example, she pointed out how the United States government now allows women in the military to participate in all combat roles.

The study also found that women not only have a higher risk of disabilities than men, but that they also have a higher risk of disabilities than previously recorded.

Wolf said the percentage of people with disabilities in the U.S. had been decreasing until around 2000, when it plateaued. Now the percentage of women with disabilities is increasing.

“We weren’t surprised to see further evidence that it had stopped,” he said. “I don’t think we were expecting that it had actually reversed for women.”

Lane said one possibility for why women are at a higher risk of developing disabilities is that girls and women have stronger immune systems than men and boys.

“Probably because we have babies,” Lane said.

Lane said it’s possible that women’s stronger immune systems are more likely to attack the body itself. This can lead to an increased risk of autoimmune disorders such as lupus and Type 1 diabetes, she said.

Wolf said that in order to improve the lives of older women with and without disabilities, people should look into prevention and adaptation. Some examples of methods people can take to improve the lives of older women is to facilitate increased social interaction, find ways to overcome reduced financial resources and create healthy eating programs and fall prevention programs.
“There’s lots of things, and each thing may have just have just a tiny little benefit,” Wolf said. “If you do lots of things, maybe you can get a big benefit.”

Published on March 28, 2016 at 12:29 am

Contact Nicole: nvalinot@syr.edu