Australian men are now living
longer than any other group of males in the world, according to new research
from The Australian National University (ANU).
The study introduces a new way
of measuring life expectancy, accounting for the historical mortality
conditions that today's older generations lived through.
By this measure, Australian
men, on average, live to 74.1.
The news is good for
Australian women too; the study shows they're ranked second, behind their Swiss
counterparts.
Dr Collin Payne co-led the
study, which used data from 15 countries across Europe, North America and Asia
with high life expectancies.
"Popular belief has it
that Japan and the Nordic countries are doing really well in terms of health,
wellbeing, and longevity. But Australia is right there," Dr Payne said.
"The results have a lot
to do with long term stability and the fact Australia's had a high standard of
living for a really, really long time. Simple things like having enough to eat,
and not seeing a lot of major conflict play a part."
Dr Payne's study grouped
people by year of birth, separating 'early' deaths from 'late' deaths, to come
up with the age at which someone can be considered an 'above-average' survivor.
"Most measures of life
expectancy are just based on mortality rates at a given time," Dr Payne
said.
"It's basically saying if
you took a hypothetical group of people and put them through the mortality
rates that a country experienced in 2018, for example, they would live to an
average age of 80.
"But that doesn't tell
you anything about the life courses of people, as they've lived through to old
age.
"Our measure takes the
life course into account, including mortality rates from 50, 60, or 70 years
ago.
"What matters is we're
comparing a group of people who were born in the same year, and so have
experienced similar conditions throughout their life."
Dr Payne says this method
allows us to clearly see whether someone is reaching their cohort's life
expectancy.
"For example, any
Australian man who's above age 74 we know with 100 per cent certainty has
outlived half of his cohort -- he's an above average survivor compared to his
peers born in the same year," he said.
"And those figures are
higher here than anywhere else that we've measured life expectancy.
"On the other hand, any
man who's died before age 74 is not living up to their cohort's life
expectancy."
Dr Payne says there are a
number of factors which might've contributed to Australia jumping ahead in
these new rankings.
"Mortality was really
high in Japan in the 30s, 40s and 50s. In Australia, mortality was really low
during that time," Dr Payne said.
"French males, for
example, drop out because a lot of them died during WW2, some from direct
conflict, others from childhood conditions."
Dr Payne is now hoping to get
enough data to look at how rankings have changed over the last 30 or 40 years.
The research has been
published in the journal Population Studies.
Story Source:
Materials provided by Australian National
University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference:
Michel Guillot, Collin F.
Payne. Tracking progress in mean longevity: The Lagged Cohort Life
Expectancy (LCLE) approach. Population Studies, 2019; DOI: 10.1080/00324728.2019.1618480
Cite This Page:
Australian National
University. "Australian men's life expectancy tops other men's."
ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 22 August 2019.
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