Story at a glance
- Nearly two-thirds of 10- to 24-year-olds who died in 2019 were male, new research shows.
- The gender gap in mortality was widest in Latin America and the Caribbean, where the mortality rate of men aged 20 to 24 was three times higher than that of women in the same age group.
- Researchers said while previous programming has “understandably” focused on the social conditions in which girls live, boys have been left behind.
Nearly two-thirds of teenagers and young adults who died in 2019 were male, sounding alarm bells that the gender gap in mortality rates is widening in certain areas.
Just over 61 percent of worldwide deaths among 10- to 24-year-olds occurred in males, according to new research published in the medical journal The Lancet. Mortality rates in males between 10 and 24 have plunged 15 percent since 1950, falling behind female mortality rates in that age group, which have dropped 30 percent.
The gender gap in mortality was widest in Latin America and the Caribbean, where males aged 20 to 24 were more than three times as likely to die than women. Interpersonal violence was identified as the leading cause of death for 15- to 24-year-old men in this region, where mortality hasn’t improved in 20 years, according to the research.
Leading causes of death for young men in 2019 varied. Most deaths in males aged 10 to 14 were due to accidents in all regions save for high-income ones, where cancer was the leading cause. In South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, most male children died from consuming contaminated food or water. In 15- to 24-year-old males, the leading cause of death was a fatal transport-related injury.
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“High numbers of deaths in males indicate increases in the proportion of deaths due to violence, trauma and substance misuse, which predominantly affect young males,” Joseph Ward of University College London’s child health institute, one of the study’s authors, told the Guardian. “This reflects a failure to address some of the leading causes of mortality in this age group.”
Researchers said poor progress in mortality could reflect the omission of adolescents in global health initiatives like the United Nations’s Millennium Development Goals. While previous programming addressing the social conditions in which young women live has been “fundamental to improving adolescent health globally,” boys have been left behind, researchers say.
“Inequitable gender norms are also damaging to adolescent males, and advancing the health of all adolescents requires action to reduce inequities in outcomes wherever they occur,” they wrote.
More dollars should also be given to injury prevention investments that improve water safety, prevent unintentional injuries, and target behavioral and structural risk factors for traffic deaths, they said.
They added that young people in many areas have been neglected by policymakers during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has put efforts to improve mortality rates and address gender inequities at risk.
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