When and why women began to outlive men

Women tend to live longer lives than their male counterparts, and now, a recent study may explain when this began to happen and why.

While death rates were mostly equal across genders for those born by 1840, people born after 1880 experienced a widening gap in life expectancy, with women dying at a rate that declined 70 percent faster compared to the men.

Researchers have attributed the difference in death timelines to a higher incidence of heart disease in men over the age of 40.

Smoking was also a factor but accounted for a little less than a third of the disparity between men and women after 1890.

Researchers determined these differences after assessing data for people born from 1800 through 1935 across 13 more advanced countries.

Men's vulnerability to cardiovascular disease became more apparent as the rate of death from infections declined and overall lifestyle behaviors improved.

It is unclear if biological differences or activities like diet and exercise are the reason behind the heart-related gender disparity, and as such, may become an area of research in the future.