# Project 2

> **NIH NIH P01** · DUKE UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $279,362

## Abstract

Empirical evidence accumulated over many decades revealed an apparent contradiction between the
health and survival of men and women. Women enjoy a longer life than men in all countries of the world, but
women tend to report poorer self-rated health, they have higher disability levels at all ages and perform more
poorly on physical tests than men. This so-called male-female health-survival paradox has far-reaching
economic, sociological, and medical implications for human societies. We have spent the past five years
investigating the health-survival paradox using an exceptionally rich data resource of Danish register and
survey data (Oksuzyan et al., 2008, 2009, 2010a, 2011, 2013; Jacobsen et al. 2008). Generally, we have not
been able to confirm any major impact of many of the suggested underlying mechanisms such as male
underreporting of health problems and medication use (Oksuzyan et al., 2009). We also performed cross-
national comparisons with other high-income countries (Japan and US) and found consistent sex differentials
in survival and health (Oksuzyan et al., 2010b). Finally, we extended our analyses to the Utah population and
found that, despite high female fertility and a healthy male life style (low tobacco and alcohol consumption),
females in Utah have very substantial survival advantages (Lindahl-Jacobsen et al., 2013).
 In this renewal we intend to expand this research to test how universal are the sex differences in health
and survival in populations that experience living conditions and cultures very different from contemporary
Western societies (China and Russia). In these studies we will focus on the same theme as in the primate
study, namely social status and how it contributes to male-female differences in health and survival and
compare them to the rich data available in Denmark. Furthermore, we intend to use the comprehensive cause
of death data available in Denmark and Utah to test how male-female differences in causes of death may
contribute to the paradox. By focusing on the outstanding, already existing human data resources that were
created in our previous P01 work and also used in project 1, and by making explicit cross-species comparisons
between our study population and the primate population that will be examined in Project 3, we propose to
shed new light on potential mechanisms underlying the male-female health-survival paradox.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9922226
- **Project number:** 5P01AG031719-10
- **Recipient organization:** DUKE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** KAARE CHRISTENSEN
- **Activity code:** P01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $279,362
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** — → 2023-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9922226

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9922226, Project 2 (5P01AG031719-10). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-11 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9922226. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*