Differences in healthy life expectancy among men and women
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* Mark O. Baerlocher MD

*   © 2007 Canadian Medical Association

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines healthy life expectancy as the “average number of years that a person can expect to live in ‚full health' by taking into account years lived in less than full health due to disease and/or injury.” Figure 1 shows the most recent WHO data on healthy life expectancies for 23 countries.1

![Figure1](http://www.cmaj.ca/https://www.cmaj.ca/content/cmaj/177/10/1174/F1.medium.gif)

[Figure1](http://www.cmaj.ca/content/177/10/1174/F1)

**Figure 1:** Differences in healthy life expectancy by sex.1

On average, women tend to live longer than men. This trend also applies to healthy life expectancy in most countries. However, there are several exceptions. Figure 1 shows the 8 countries where the difference in healthy life expectancy is greatest in favour of men and the 8 countries where the difference is greatest in favour of women as well as the G7 countries for comparison. In Canada, the healthy life expectancy for women is 4 years longer than for men. The most striking exception to the general trend is Qatar, where men live in “full health” an average of 2.9 years longer than women. Russia is at the other end of the spectrum, where men are affected by major illness or injury 11 years before women.

## REFERENCE

1.  1. *World Health Statistics 2007*. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2007. Available: [www.who.int/whosis/whostat2007/en/index.html](http://www.who.int/whosis/whostat2007/en/index.html) (accessed 2007 Sept 19).