José Tomás Mateos - Department of Nursing and Physiotherapy, University of Lleida, Lleida, Spain
José Fernández-Sáez - Unitat de Suport a la Recerca Terres de l´Ebre, Fundació Institut Universitari per a la recerca a l’Atenció Primària de Salut Jordi Gol i Gurina (IDIAPJGol), Tortosa, Spain
Jorge Marcos-Marcos - Department of Health Psychology, University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain
Carlos Álvarez-Dardet - Public Health Research Group, University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain
Clare Bambra - Institute of Health & Society, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Jennie Popay - Division of Health Research, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
Kedar Baral - Department of Community Health Sciences, Patan Academy of Health Sciences, Kathmandu, Nepal
Connie Musolino - Southgate Institute for Health, Society & Equity, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia
Fran Baum - Southgate Institute for Health, Society & Equity, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia

When looking at life expectancy (LE) by sex, women live longer than men in all countries. Biological factors alone do not explain gender differences in LE, and examining structural differences may help illuminate other explanatory factors. The aim of this research is to analyse the influence of gender inequality on the gender gap in LE globally. We have carried out a regression analysis between the gender gap in relativised LE and the UN Gender Inequality Index (GII), with a sensitivity analysis conducted for its three dimensions, stratified by the six World Health Organization (WHO) regions. We adjusted the model by taking into consideration gross national income (GNI), democratic status and rural population. The results indicated a positive association for the European region (ß=۰.۱۸۴) and the Americas (ß=۰.۱۳۶) in our adjusted model. Conversely, for the African region, the relations between gender equality and the LE gender gap were found to be negative (ß=-۰.۱۲۵). The findings suggest that in the WHO European region and the Americas, greater gender equality leads to a narrowing of the gender LE gap, while it has a contrary relationship in Africa. We suggest that this could be because only higher scores in the GII between men and women show health benefits.

Life Expectancy, Gender Gap, Gender Equality