New Harvard study finds COVID cut life expectancy but women continue to live longer

BOSTON – When it comes to life expectancy, the gender gap is widening even further.

A new study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the University of California, San Francisco finds that the average American was projected to live about three fewer years in 2021 than in 2019, and the life expectancy gap between women and men grew.

Women are now estimated to live nearly six years longer than men, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Men spent more time in risky environments such as work, jails, and homeless shelters. They were less likely to seek medical care and were more likely to suffer complications. But so-called “deaths of despair” also are playing a role, namely alcoholism, overdoses, and suicide, which affect more men than women, suggesting men could benefit from additional mental health and substance abuse outreach.

Now as the burden of COVID-19 eases, researchers want to reassess life expectancy trends post-pandemic.

Mallika Marshall, MD

Mallika Marshall, MD is an Emmy-award-winning journalist and physician who has served as the HealthWatch Reporter for CBS Boston/WBZ-TV for over 20 years. A practicing physician Board Certified in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, Dr. Marshall serves on staff at Harvard Medical School and practices at Massachusetts General Hospital at the MGH Chelsea Urgent Care and the MGH Revere Health Center, where she is currently working on the frontlines caring for patients with COVID-19. She is also a host and contributing editor for Harvard Health Publications (HHP), the publishing division of Harvard Medical School.