Tobacco kills men sooner than women

The reason why women on average outlive men in Europe is mostly due to smoking, new research has found.

The study, published online in the journal Tobacco Control, compared death rates for men and women in 30 European countries including the UK, using figures from the World Health Organisation.

Researchers from the Medical Research Council compared death rates among men and women from all causes as well as those attributed to smoking and drinking.

Up to 60 per cent of the difference in male/female death rates across Europe was attributed to smoking. Alcohol accounted for around 20 per cent.

Smoking related deaths included respiratory tract cancers, coronary artery disease, stroke and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Those related to alcohol included cancers of the throat and gullet and chronic liver disease as well as alcoholic psychosis and violence.

Although deaths from all causes were higher for men than for women, the gender gap in death rates varied considerably between the countries studied. These ranged from more than 400 excess male deaths per 100,000 in Eastern Europe to around half this in the UK and Iceland.

Smoking was found to be behind 40 to 60 per cent of excess male deaths in all countries, except Denmark, Portugal and France, where it was lower, and Malta where it was much higher (74%).

In the UK, 60 per cent of the excess male deaths was attributed to smoking.

Overall, the proportion of excess deaths attributable to alcohol ranged from 20 to 30 per cent.

In the journal Tobacco Control, the authors wrote: "Profound changes in the population level of smoking and in the magnitude of the gender gap in smoking should contribute to smaller gender differences in mortality in the coming decades."

"However, the extent to which this is realised will depend on the ways in which other health risk behaviours are patterned by gender," they added, pointing to the continuing rise of smoking among young people and increasing numbers involved in harmful drinking.

This article was published on Tue 18 January 2011