为什么美国女性死得更早

American women may be making strides in shattering the glass ceiling of the executive office and making it clear that sexual harassment is not OK. But in one very significant -- perhaps the most important -- aspect of their lives, 他们做不到. 

根据  一份报告 by the Center for 退休 Research (CRR) at 波士顿 College, life expectancy for women in the U.S. has stalled, leaving American females at the bottom of the list of the wealthiest nations.

“虽然 U.S. 预期寿命现在是最低的 在 ... high-income nations, the discrepancy is especially stark for women," said the CRR. In 1960, American women were likely to be 在 the longest-living females in the world. 但这一趋势在20世纪80年代发生了逆转, and today their life expectancy lags two-and-a-half years behind women in other developed nations.

CRR还有另一个惊人的发现. Even though women have had, and still do have, longer life spans than men, that gap is narrowing. It's now is only four to five years, compared to the nine or 10 years for previous generations.

U.S. lifespan overall is not thriving compared to countries such as Canada, France and Japan. Data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 世界贸易组织, 表明美国.S. has regressed from having the third-highest life expectancy in 1960 to the bottom of the list in 2016. But the CRR claimed the decline is "largely a women's story, although U.S. 近年来，男性开始下滑."

的 CRR looked at retirement-age Americans and based its study on expected life span from age 65 on. But the factors that make both men and women -- but particularly women -- die younger than they should are already in place when they're in their 30s and 40s.

尽管对美国军事行动的批评不绝于耳.S. health care system relative to socialized medicine in other developed countries, this nation's erratic health care doesn't seem to be a significant factor, 根据CRR. "的se differences probably have had little impact," it said.

Instead, the study indicated that the fault lies within ourselves. CRR说，疾病与吸烟有关 肥胖, 比如肺癌和糖尿病, have contributed to the decline in women's life spans relative to other countries. “如果你.S. patterns had matched those of its peer countries, U.S. life expectancy would have exceeded the average until very recently."

的 CRR said the life expectancy gap between the U.S. and other countries was "surprising" given that we spend more money on health care than any other nation in the world. 而美国.S. is doing better than most other nations at "aggressive treatment" of cancer and heart disease. 但是美国在哪里?.S. fails is in 肥胖, which causes stroke, and lung cancer, which is often caused by smoking. U.S. 太阳城官网发现，女性吸烟较多.

While death rates from respiratory diseases fell short of those in other countries for men, 实际上，女性的死亡率有所上升. 最近，男女吸烟人数都有所减少, but residual effects for those who smoked in the past will be felt for years to come.

Each additional cigarette smoked by a woman per day reduced her life expectancy by almost four months 25 years later. 在20世纪80年代，美国.S. 女性吸烟2人.4 more cigarettes per day than women in many other countries. And by 2005 their lives were shortened by eight months. 与此形成鲜明对比的是, men's cigarette consumption almost equaled the norm for comparable nations, and so it shortened their lives by only six months.

尽管在美国吸烟是有害的.S. is on the decline, 肥胖, or being overweight, is expanding with our waistlines. 对肥胖症, each 1 percentage point increase in the percentage of women considered obese reduces life expectancy by slightly more than half a month. 肥胖被定义为“严重超重”." A five-foot-four-inch obese woman would weigh in at about 175 pounds or more.

的 U.S. 现在是一个“大码”国家吗. 2005年，美国与中国之间的差距.S. 以及其他九个发达国家, 包括德国, 西班牙和意大利, 是21个百分点, suggesting that 肥胖 reduced women's lives by more than a year. A 太阳城官网 by the National Center for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that nearly 40 percent of U.S. adults age 20 and older are now considered obese, with 41 percent being women and 38 percent men.

But the decline in life expectancy isn't necessarily across the board. 一些太阳城官网表明 低收入工人 -- often women holding down more than one job and trying to raise a family -- may suffer higher rates of mortality that those who can afford leisure time, 还有健身房会员.

的 CRR's conclusion: Today, being overweight is the greatest enemy, especially for women.