SYD 3020 Key terms for Module 3 Part 2 Fourth Lecture Mortality differentials Systematic variations in life expectancy across social groups Systematic means regularities that appear to be built in to a society or that appear across societies Ascribed characteristics leading to mortality differentials Characteristics that you are born with An ascribed characteristic that affects life expectancy in every population in the Biological sex your race or ethnic background world is biological sex On average females live longer than males Tells us that biology plays an important role behind the male female life expectancy gap because it happens everywhere Achieved characteristics leading to mortality differentials Statuses that you achieve like education or occupation Sex differences in life expectancy High income countries Research tells us that the major reason for the sex difference in longevity in high income countries is behavioral men take more risks than women Men have higher rates of cigarette smoking drinking gun use employment in hazardous occupations and risk taking in recreation and driving Therefore leading to men s higher death rates due to lung cancer accidents suicide and homicide Low income countries The gender gap in mortality is narrower in developing countries than in developed countries Two reasons for this is o In low income countries women have much lower social status than men so they have less access to resources like money education or freedom of movement o And women face additional risks associated with pregnancy and childbirth Maternal mortality Women in low income countries face risks with pregnancy and childbirth The combination of women s physiology their social status and insufficient medical resources results in high levels in low income countries Birth s that take place in high income countries usually take place in hospitals and most mothers get prenatal care unlike low income countries where women around the world die every day from causes related to pregnancy complications of illegal abortions complications of giving birth such as breech or obstructed birth baby s bottom comes out first Those kind of conditions can be prevented or treated in high income countries with adequate medical resources and sterile conditions 800 women die each day from complications of pregnancy labor or birth 600 out of the 800 are women in just two countries Nigeria and India The WHO the World Bank and the United Nations are attempting to help make prenatal care clean birthing centers and qualified midwives and medical personnel available in these countries because they will account for most of the global population growth over the next three decades Minority status and life expectancy been moving upwards Between 1970 and 2010 life expectancy for whites and African Americans have But at every time point whites were expected to live longer on average than blacks which gives us evidence of the link between minority status and life expectancy In the U S on average African Americans have lower socioeconomic status less access to health care the neighborhoods they live in their jobs and other factors put them at greater risk of mortality Allostatic load Measures the cumulative effects of a lifetime of stress In other words it is the physical manifestation of minority status it is higher often much higher in members of minority groups Mortality cross over The intersection of age curves of mortality at older ages Ex black men who reach age 90 can expect another 4 4 years but white men only expect 4 more years Ex Among those who reach the age of 85 white women can expect to live another 6 9 years but black women to live another 7 1 years Selection effect Survival of the fittest effect Since blacks who live to be 80 or older have survived substantially more adversity over their lives than the average white person of the same age we can say that black elders are more fit than white elders Hispanic paradox Hispanic origin females live longer than non Hispanic counterparts Same is true among men Researchers hypothesized the paradox is due to a healthy migrant effect Healthy migrant effect Hispanic migrants to the U S may be particularly fit and live longer because of it Key terms for Module 3 Part 2 SYD 3020 Lecture 5 Two branches of the National Academy of Sciences o National Research Council NRC o Institute of Medicine IOM The National Academy is a select group of experts that advises the President and Congress on science engineering and high technology and medicine The NRC and the IOM summarize the latest research and present it along with their assessments and recommendations in book length reports called monographs International mortality gap NRC report on the health and mortality of persons 50 and over showed that residents of the US are less likely than persons in other countries to reach their 50s and when they do they do so in poorer condition Probability of surviving to age x Years of life lost How long the average person doesn t live compared to the average for persons in some other population Demographers calculate this using the life table The number of years lost to death that are over and above the average in a high Excess mortality income country years Person Years A combination of number of people who died and the ages they lived to One person living one year equals one person year two people living oe year each equals two person years Morbidity living in an unhealthy state Infant mortality rate An unhealthy state Ex to say the U S has a greater morbidity means that we have more people IMR is measured as the number of deaths between birth and the first birthday per 1 000 live births IMR is improving everywhere but has not improved as rapidly in the U S as un our peer countries Perinatal period Extends from roughly the 6th month of gestation to one month after birth The U S has higher rates of preterm births higher rates of low birth weight infants and more birth complications Prenatal care Women in U S are less likely to get constant prenatal care Adolescent birth rate in the US is 7 times higher than the Swedish rate and more than 8 times higher than the Japanese rate Adolescent women are much less likely than older women to obtain prenatal care Also another complication is physiology b c their bodies may not yet be mature leading to adolescent women having higher rates of pre term births and birth complications It is also harder for teens to provide appropriate