BACKGROUND A sexual dimorphism in human life expectancy has existed in almost every country for as long as records have been kept. Although human life expectancy has increased each year, females still live longer, on average, than males. Undoubtedly, the reasons for the sex gap in life expectancy are multifaceted, and it has been discussed from both sociological and biological perspectives. How...

To the Editor: Proteinuria, a marker of kidney disease, is associated strongly with risk of adverse outcomes, including all-cause mortality. Life expectancy, a measure to estimate health status and disease burden at a population level, has not been reported for patients with different levels of proteinuria. This information could help policy makers recognize the health burden caused by proteinu...

A large amount of research literature shows that persons with severe neurological injuries, whether from cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury, or spinal cord injury, are subject to greater mortality rates than persons of the same age and sex in the general population. This is especially true when motor function is seriously impaired. It follows as a mathematical consequence that their life ex...

In 1991, the National Task Force on Health Information recommended that in order to assess the health of Canadians, the health information system should include an aggregate index of population health. This article presents such an index--Health-Adjusted Life Expectancy (HALE)--as one possibility in a range of indicators. In contrast to conventional life expectancy, which considers all years as...

The official 1990-92 detailed life tables show a continuation of the trend toward longer life expectancy for Canadians (see Life tables). Life expectancy at birth has reached an all-time high: 80.89 years for females and 74.55 years for males. Recent improvements in life expectancy are attributable to many factors, including declines in infant mortality, cerebrovascular and cardiovascular disea...

It is observed that few patients over the age of 60 regularly attend the keratoconus clinic at Moorfields Eye Hospital. The hypothesis that patients with keratoconus have a shorter life expectancy owing to underlying connective tissue related disease was tested. From patient records a sample of 337 keratoconus patients aged at least 40 years by 1991 were identified, of which 279 were living, 13...