Life expectancy and gender

Sir, – It's heartening to read in Dick Ahlstrom's article that our life expectancy is continuing to increase ("Living for 90 years may become new normal, study shows", February 22nd).

However, the gender gap is also increasing as the women have added 11 years (since 1960) to their life expectancy, compared to 10 years for the men.

Can someone please explain the reasons for the current five-year (83 years for women and 78 years for men) differential? – Yours, etc,

JOSEPH TUMMON,

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Galway.