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The changing gender differences in life expectancy in Korea 1970–2005

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  • Yang, Seungmi
  • Khang, Young-Ho
  • Chun, Heeran
  • Harper, Sam
  • Lynch, John

Abstract

Women live much longer than men in Korea, with remarkable gains in life expectancy at birth for the past decades. The gender differential has steadily increased over time, reaching a peak of more than 8 years in 1980s, and decreased thereafter to 6.7 years in 2005. Studies to investigate the pattern and contributing factors to changes in the life expectancy gender gap have been mostly from Western countries, and there has been no such study in Asian countries, except in Japan. We therefore aimed to examine age- and cause-specific contributions to the changing gender differentials in life expectancy in Korea, in particular the decline of the gap, using a decomposition method. Between 1970 and 1979 when the gender gap in life expectancy widened, faster mortality decline among women in ages 20–44 explained 66% of the total increase in the gender gap, which would be due to substantial improvements in reproductive health among women and excess male mortality in occupational injuries and transport accidents. Although greater survival advantage among elderly women over 70 contributed to further increase in the gender gap, the contributions from younger ages with the ages 15–64 contributing the most (−2 years) resulted in the overall reduction of the gender gap which began in 1992 and continued to 2005. Among causes of death, liver diseases (−0.5 years, 38% of the total decline), transport accidents (−0.4 years, 31%), hypertensive diseases (−0.3 years, 19%), stroke (−0.1 years, 11%), and tuberculosis (−0.1 years) contributed the most to the overall 1.4 years reduction in the gender gap. However, changes in mortality from lung cancer (+0.3 years), suicide (+0.3 years), chronic lower respiratory diseases (+0.2 years), and ischemic heart diseases (+0.1 years) contributed to widening the gap during the same period. In sum, while smoking-related causes of death have contributed most to the narrowing gap in most other industrialized countries, these causes contributed toward increasing the gender gap in Korea. Instead, liver disease, hypertension-related diseases, and transport accidents were major contributing causes of death to the narrowing of gender differentials in life expectancy in Korea.

Suggested Citation

  • Yang, Seungmi & Khang, Young-Ho & Chun, Heeran & Harper, Sam & Lynch, John, 2012. "The changing gender differences in life expectancy in Korea 1970–2005," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(7), pages 1280-1287.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:75:y:2012:i:7:p:1280-1287
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.04.026
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Chun, Heeran & Khang, Young-Ho & Kim, Il-Ho & Cho, Sung-Il, 2008. "Explaining gender differences in ill-health in South Korea: The roles of socio-structural, psychosocial, and behavioral factors," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(6), pages 988-1001, September.
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    5. Jeroen Spijker & Frans van Poppel & Leo van Wissen, 2007. "Explaining new trends in the gender gap of mortality: Insights from a regional trend- analysis of the Netherlands," Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, vol. 5(1), pages 61-92.
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    Cited by:

    1. Audrey Ugarte & Onofre Alves Simões, 2020. "Breaking Life Expectancy into Small Pieces," Working Papers REM 2020/0154, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, REM, Universidade de Lisboa.
    2. Eun, Sang Jun, 2019. "Avoidable, amenable, and preventable mortalities in South Korea, 2000–2017: Age-period-cohort trends and impact on life expectancy at birth," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 237(C), pages 1-1.
    3. Vesper H. Chisumpa & Clifford O. Odimegwu & Nandita Saikia, 2019. "Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa: What is Killing Adults Aged 15-59 Years in Zambia?," VID Working Papers 1904, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna.

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