Why Are So Many American Men Dying?

Medical researchers have taken a formal look at a problem that has been worrying life and annuity issuers for years: the growing life expectancy gap in the U.S. between men and women.

COVID-19 and a surge in drug overdose deaths increased mortality for both men and women between 2019 and 2021, according to a team led by Dr. Brandon Yan of the University of California, San Francisco.

Because those factors hit men harder than women, they widened the gender gap in mortality, the team found.

Between 2010 and 2019, before COVID-19 came along, an increase in the number of drug overdose deaths was already widening the gender gap.

What it means: Medical researchers are confirming what life insurance and annuity actuaries have been saying all along about the gender mortality gap.

For advisors, one takeaway may be that male clients need to think especially carefully about preventive health screenings, life insurance, estate planning and the effect of uncertainty about life expectancy on retirement income planning.

The study: The Yan team started with data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.

They determined how much 12 common causes of death contributed to changes in the age-adjusted death rates for men and women over time.

The researchers published their work in JAMA Internal Medicine, a journal affiliated with the American Medical Association.

The data: For men, the overall age-adjusted death rate increased to 1,048 deaths per 100,000 men in 2021, from 847 deaths per 100,000 men in 2019.