Cardiovascular clinics
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Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies on vital statistics and population-based samples document that women live longer than men. The sex mortality differential covers all ages and races in most developed nations. The magnitude of the sex mortality differential varies with age, being especially high at younger ages. ⋯ With ongoing changes in society, especially increasing participation of women in the labor force, new components of the environmental setting will have to be assessed by comparable and identical instruments in different populations. Ongoing monitoring of trends in cardiovascular and noncommunicable diseases will provide valuable insight into the sex mortality differential and its determinants. Experimental studies on biological reactivity, sex endocrinology, and atherogenesis are also needed to help explain why women live longer than men.