title: Gender gaps in life expectancy: generalized trends and negative associations with development indices in OECD countries.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Life expectancy (LE) is a major marker of individual survival. It also serves as a guide to highlight both the progress and the gaps in total social and societal health. Comparative LE in concert with measures of gender-specific experience, indices of empowerment and societal happiness and development offer a comparative tool to examine trends and similarities of societal progress as seen through the lens of cross-national experience.
  
  
  METHODS
  To determine the gender gaps in LE (GGLE) trends, we performed a longitudinal analysis, covering a period of 49 years (1960-2008). To examine the association of GGLE with development indices, we used the 2007 GGLE data, the newest happiness data mostly drawn from 2006; the 2006 Human Development Index (HDI) data and the 2006 Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  It revealed that most of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries had a GGLE trend that occurred in an inverted U-curve fashion. We divided them into three subgroups based on the peak years of respective GGLE. The earlier the peak year, the happier the countries, the higher the HDI and the smaller the current GGLE are. Association analysis indicates that Happiness, HDI and GEM are all negatively associated with GGLE.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This pattern suggests that GGLE undergoes three phases of growth, peak and stability and decline. Japan will soon be seeing its GGLE gradually shrinking in the foreseeable future. The continuing increases in Happiness, HDI and GEM are associated with a decrease in GGLE, which should be carefully taken into consideration.
authors.affiliation: Department of Global Health and Epidemiology, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Asuna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Arai
authors.forename: Koji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kanda
authors.forename: Romeo B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Jay
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Glasser
authors.forename: Hiko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tamashiro
mesh_terms: D014943:Global Health / Q000639:trends*; D006240:Happiness; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008017:Life Expectancy / Q000639:trends*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors