Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T18:14:18.378Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

SEX DIFFERENCES IN LIFE EXPECTANCY IN CANADA: IMMIGRANT AND NATIVE-BORN POPULATIONS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2011

FRANK TROVATO  and
DAVID ODYNAK
FRANK TROVATO
Affiliation:
Population Research Laboratory, Department of Sociology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
DAVID ODYNAK
Affiliation:
Population Research Laboratory, Department of Sociology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

A growing body of research often indicates that immigrant populations in Western countries enjoy a lower level of mortality in relation to their native-born host populations. In this literature, sex differences in mortality are often reported but substantive analyses of the differences are generally lacking. The present investigation looks at sex differences in life expectancy with specific reference to immigrant and Canadian-born populations in Canada during 1971 and 2001. For these two populations, sex differences in expectation of life at birth are decomposed into cause-of-death components. Immigrants in Canada have a higher life expectancy than their Canadian-born counterparts. In absolute terms, immigrant females enjoy the highest life expectancy. In relative terms, however, immigrant men show a larger longevity advantage, as their expectation of life at birth exceeds that of Canadian-born men by a wider margin than do foreign-born females in relation to Canadian-born females. It is also found that immigrants have a smaller sex differential in life expectancy as compared with the Canadian born. Decomposition analysis shows this is a function of immigrants having smaller sex differences in death rates from heart disease and cancer. Factors thought to underlie these differentials between immigrants and the Canadian born are discussed and suggestions for further research are given.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 43 , Issue 3 , May 2011 , pp. 353 - 367
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abraido-Lanza, A. F., Dohrenwend, B. P., Ng-Mak, D. D. & Turner, F. B. (1999) The Latino mortality paradox: a test of the ‘salmon bias’ and healthy migrant hypotheses. American Journal of Public Health 89, 1543–1548.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Anson, J. (2004) The migrant mortality advantage: a 70 month follow-up of the Brussels population. European Journal of Population 20, 191–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brahimi, M. (1980) La mortalité des estrangers en France. Population 35, 603–622.Google Scholar
Case, A. & Paxson, C. (2005) Sex differences in morbidity and health. Demography 42(2), 189–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Courbage, Y. & Khlat, M. (1995) La mortalité et les causes dececes des Marocains en France. I. La mortalité generale: une confirmation del la sours-mortalite masculine malgre les problemes de mesure. Population 1, 33–60.Google Scholar
Das Gupta, P. (1993) Standardization and Decomposition of Rates: A User's Manual. US Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
El-Badry, M. A. (1969) Higher female than male mortality in some countries of South Asia: a digest. Journal of the American Statistical Association 64, 1234–1244.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eschbach, K., Stimpson, J. P., Kuo, Y-F. & Goodwin, J. S. (2007) Mortality of foreign-born and US-born Hispanic adults at younger ages: a reexamination of recent patterns. American Journal of Public Health 97(7), 1297–1304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ezzati, M., Henley, S. J., Thun, M. J. & Lopez, A. D. (2000) Role of smoking in global and regional cardiovascular mortality. Circulation 112, 489–497.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glei, D. A. & Horiuchi, S. (2007) The narrowing sex differential in life expectancy in high-income populations: effects of differences in the age pattern of mortality. Population Studies 61(2), 141–159.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Green, A. G. & Green, D. (1999) The economic goals of Canada's immigration policy: past and present. Canadian Public Policy 24, 435–451.Google Scholar
Jasso, G., Massey, D. S., Rosenzweig, M. R. & Smith, J. P. (2004) Immigrant health: selectivity and acculturation. In Anderson, N. B., Bulatao, R. A. & Cohen, R. (eds) Critical Perspectives on Ethnic and Racial Differences in Health in Later Life. National Research Council, Panel on Race, Ethnicity, and Health in Later Life. Committee on Population Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, National Academy Press, Washington, DC, pp. 227–266.Google Scholar
Kasl, S. V. & Berkman, L. L. (1983) Health consequences of the experience of migration. Annual Review of Public Health 4, 69–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kestenbaum, B. (1986) Mortality by nativity. Demography 23(1), 87–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Khlat, M. (1993) Mortalite des Levantins en Australie. Population 48(4), 1072–1081.Google Scholar
Khlat, M. & Darmon, N. (2003) Is there a Mediterranean migrants mortality paradox in Europe? International Journal of Epidemiology 32, 1115–1118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitagawa, E. M. (1955) Decomposition of the difference between two rates. Journal of the American Statistical Association 50, 1168–1194.Google Scholar
Llacer, A., Zunzunegui, M. V., del Amo, J., Mazarrasa, J. & Bolumar, F. (2007) The contribution of a gender perspective to the understanding of migrants' health. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 61 (Supplement II), ii4–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lopez, A. D. (1995) The lung cancer epidemic in developed countries. In Lopez, A. D., Caselli, G. & Valkonen, T. (eds) Adult Mortality in Developed Countries: From Description to Explanation. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 111–134.Google Scholar
Lopez, A. D., Caselli, G. & Valkonen, T. (1995) Moving from description to explanation of adult mortality: issues and approaches. In Lopez, A. D., Caselli, G. & Valkonen, T. (eds) Adult Mortality in Developed Countries: From Description to Explanation. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 3–20.Google Scholar
Luy, M. (2003) Causes of male excess mortality: insights from cloistered populations. Population and Development Review 29(4), 647–676.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Madigan, F. C. (1957) Are sex mortality differentials biologically caused? Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly 35(2), 202–223.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marmot, M. G., Adelstein, A. M. & Bulusu, L. (1983) Immigrant mortality in England and Wales, 1970–78. Population Trends 33, 14–17.Google Scholar
Marmot, M. G., Adelstein, A. M. & Bulusu, L. (1984a) Immigrant Mortality in England and Wales, 1970–78. Cause of Death by Country of Birth. Studies on Medical and Population Subjects No. 47. HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Marmot, M. G., Adelstein, A. M. & Bulusu, L. (1984b) Lessons from the study of immigrant mortality. Lancet 323(8392), 1455–1457.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nathanson, C. A. (1984) Sex differences in mortality. Annual Review of Sociology 10, 191–213.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nathanson, C. A. (1995) The position of women and mortality in developed countries. In Lopez, A. D., Caselli, G. & Valkonen, T. (eds) Adult Mortality in Developed Countries: From Description to Explanation. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 135–157.Google Scholar
Palloni, A. & Arias, E. (2004) Paradox lost: explaining the Hispanic adult mortality advantage. Demography 41(3), 385–415.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Palloni, A. & Eubank, D. C. (2004) Selection processes in the study of racial and ethnic differentials in adult health and mortality. In Anderson, N. B., Bulatao, R. A. & Cohen, R. (eds) Critical Perspectives on Ethnic and Racial Differences in Health in Later Life. National Research Council, Panel on Race, Ethnicity, and Health in Later Life. Committee on Population Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, National Academy Press, Washington, DC, pp. 171–226.Google Scholar
Pampel, F. (2002) Cigarette use and the narrowing sex differential in mortality. Population and Development Review 28(1), 77–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pampel, F. (2003) Declining sex differences in mortality from lung cancer in high-income nations. Demography 40(1), 45–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pampel, F. (2005) Forecasting sex differences in mortality in high income nations: the contribution of smoking. Demographic Research 13, 455–484.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Peto, R., Lopez, A. D., Boreham, J. & Heath, C. (1992) Mortality from tobacco in developed countries: indirect estimation from national statistics. Lancet 339, 1268–1278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peto, R., Lopez, A. D., Boreham, J. & Heath, C. (1994) Deaths from Smoking in Developed Countries, 1950–2000: Indirect Estimates from National Vital Statistics. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Peto, R., Lopez, A. D., Boreham, J. & Thun, M. (2006) Mortality from Smoking in Developed Countries, 1950–2000 (2nd edition). URL: http://www.ctsu.ox.ac.uk/∼tobacco/Google Scholar
Peto, R., Lopez, A. D., Boreham, J., Thun, M., Heath, C. & Doll, R. (1996) Mortality from smoking worldwide. British Medical Bulletin 52(1), 12–21.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Preston, S. H. (1976) Mortality Patterns in National Populations. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Preston, S. H. & Wang, H. (2006) Sex mortality differentials in the United States: the role of cohort smoking patterns. Demography 43(4), 631–646.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Razum, O., Zeeb, H., Akgun, H. S. & Vilmaz, S. (1998) Low overall mortality of Turkish residents in Germany persists and extends into a second generation: merely a healthy migrant effect? Tropical Medicine and International Health 3, 297–303.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Razum, O., Zeeb, H. & Bohrmann, S. (2000) The ‘healthy migrant effect’ – not merely a fallacy of inaccurate denominator figures. International Journal of Epidemiology 29, 191–192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Retherford, R. D. (1975) The Changing Sex Differential in Mortality. Greenwood Press, Westport/London.Google Scholar
Ringback, , Weitoft, G., Gullberg, A., Hjerns, A. & Rosen, M. (1999) Mortality statistics in immigrant research: method for adjusting underestimation of mortality. International Journal of Epidemiology 28, 756–763.Google Scholar
Rubalcava, L. N., Teruel, G. M., Thomas, D. & Goldman, N. (2008) The healthy migrant effect: new findings form the Mexican family life survey. American Journal of Public Health 98(1), 78–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simmons, A. B. (1999) Immigration policy: imagined futures. In Halli, S. S. & Driedger, L. (eds) Immigrant Canada: Demographic, Economic, and Cultural Challenges. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, pp. 21–50.Google Scholar
Singh, G. K. & Miller, B. A. (2004) Health, life expectancy, and mortality patterns among immigrant populations in the United States. Canadian Journal of Public Health 95(3), 14–21.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Singh, G. K. & Siahpush, M. (2001) All-cause and cause-specific mortality of immigrants and native born in the United States. American Journal of Public Health 91, 392–399.Google ScholarPubMed
Statistics Canada (2007) Portrait of the Canadian Population in 2006. 2006 Census, Minister of Industries, Ottawa (Cat. No. 97-550-XIE).Google Scholar
Statistics Canada (2008a) Mortality by Cause of Death, Nativity, Age and Sex. Custom tabulation.Google Scholar
Statistics Canada (2008b) Population by Nativity, Age and Sex. Custom tabulation.Google Scholar
Statistics Canada (2009) Estimates of Population, by Age Group and Sex for July 1, Canada, Provinces And Territories (Table 051-0001). Annual (6210 series). URL: http://estat.statcan.gc.caGoogle Scholar
Stolnitz, G. J. (1957) A century of international mortality trends. Part II. Population Studies 10(1), 17–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trovato, F. (2005) Narrowing sex differential in life expectancy in Canada and Austria: comparative analysis. In Vienna Yearbook of Population Research 2005, pp. 17–52.Google Scholar
Trovato, F. & Lalu, N. M. (1996a) Narrowing sex differences in life expectancy in the industrialized world: early 1970s to early 1990s. Social Biology 43(1–2), 20–37.Google Scholar
Trovato, F. & Lalu, N. M. (1996b) Causes of death responsible for the changing sex differential in life expectancy between 1970 and 1990 in thirty industrialized nations. Canadian Studies in Population 23(2), 99–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trovato, F. & Clogg, C. C. (1992) General and cause-specific adult mortality among immigrants in Canada, 1971 and 1981. Canadian Studies in Population 19(1), 47–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uitenbroek, G. D. & Verhoeff, A. P. (2002) Life expectancy and mortality differences between migrant groups living in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Social Science & Medicine 54, 1379–1388.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Valkonen, T., Brancker, A. & Reijo, M. (1992) Mortality differences between three populations – residents of Scandinavia, Scandinavian immigrants to Canada and Canadian-born residents of Canada, 1979–1985. Health Reports 4(2), 137–159.Google Scholar
Vallin, J. (1985) La mortalité des immigrés en Angleterre et Galles. Population 40(1), 156–161.Google Scholar
Vallin, J. (1993) Social change and mortality decline: women's advantage achieved or regained? In Federici, N., Oppenheim Mason, K. & Sogner, S. (eds) Women's Position and Demographic Change. Clarendon Press, Oxford, pp. 190–212.Google Scholar
Vallin, J. (2006) Mortality, sex and gender. In Caselli, G., Vallin, J. & Wunsch, G. (eds) Demography – Analysis and Synthesis: A Treatise on Population Studies. Volume II. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 177–194.Google Scholar
Verbrugge, L. M. (1976) Sex differences in morbidity and mortality in the United States. Social Biology 34(4), 275–296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verbrugge, L. M. (1979) The twain shall meet: empirical explanations of sex differences in health and mortality. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 303, 282–304.Google Scholar
Waldron, I. (1976) Why do women live longer than men? Social Science & Medicine 10, 349–362.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Waldron, I. (1983) The role of genetic and biological factors in sex differences in mortality. In Lopez, A. D. & Ruzicka, L. T. (eds) Sex Differentials in Mortality: Trends, Determinants and Consequences. Australian National University, Department of Demography, Canberra, pp. 141–164.Google Scholar
Waldron, I. (1986) The contribution of smoking to sex differences in mortality. Public Health Reports 101(2), 163–173.Google ScholarPubMed
Wang, H. & Preston, S. H. (2009) Forecasting United States mortality using cohort smoking histories. Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences of the USA 106(2), 393–398.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wilmoth, J. R. & Dennis, M. (2006) Social differences in older adult mortality. In Robine, J-M., Crimmins, E. M., Horiuchi, S. & Zeng, Yi (eds) Human Longevity, Individual life Duration, and the Growth of the Oldest-Old Population. Springer, Dordrecht, Netherlands, pp. 297–332.Google Scholar
Young, C. M. (1987) Migration and mortality: the experience of birthplace groups in Australia. International Migration Review 21(3), 531–554.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed