PARC Working Papers

Title

Sex Mortality Differentials in the United States: The Role of Cohort Smoking Patterns

Document Type

Working Paper

Date of this Version

February 2005

Comments

PARC Working Paper Series, No. 01, 2006

Abstract

This paper demonstrates that, over the period 1948-2003, sex differentials in mortality in the age range 50-54 to 85+ widened and then narrowed on a cohort rather than on a period basis. The cohort with the maximum excess of male mortality was born shortly after the turn of the century. Three independent sources suggest that the turnaround in sex mortality differentials is consistent with sex differences in cigarette smoking by cohort. An age/period/cohort model reveals a highly significant effect of smoking histories on men’s and women’s mortality. This model suggests that improvements in mortality at older ages are likely to accelerate in the future.

Keywords

sex differentials, mortality, cigarette smoking

Date Posted: 18 March 2008