Male survival advantage on the Baja California Penninsula

A consistent finding from contemporary Western societies is that women outlive men. However, what is unclear is whether sex differences in survival are constant across varying socio-ecological conditions. We test the universality of the female survival advantage with mortality data from a 19th century population in the Baja California peninsula of Mexico. When examined simply, we find evidence for a male-biased survival advantage. However, results from Cox regression clearly show the importance of age intervals for variable survival patterns by sex. Our key findings are that males: 1) experience significantly lower mortality risk than females during the ages 15-30 (RR = 0.69), 2) are at a significantly increased risk of dying in the 61+ category (RR = 1.30), and 3) do not experience significantly different mortality risk at any other age interval (0-14, 31-45, 46-60). We interpret our results to stem from differing intrinsic and extrinsic risk-factors for sex-biased mortality across age...