Changing social landscapes could be to blame for women's slowing life expectancy

In the U.S., women’s life expectancies are longer than men’s. When the population’s life expectancy increases a little, women’s increases a little more. But lately women haven’t been making any gains in that area—their life expectancy isn't improving.

According to a new study published in the journal Social Science and Medicine Population Health, that might be related to where they live in the U.S. and have less to do with demographic stats than previously believed.

The social and economic environment of a state or community has an important effect on women’s health. And one expert told the New York Times that women can be more vulnerable than men to seeing their health impacted by location-specific factors.

All of this info might point to two potentially stress-inducing changes in women’s lives that could have negatively impacted increasing life expectancy over the last 30 years (especially for low-income women): entering the workforce and being responsible for raising children on their own.

Check out the New York Times to see which states tend to be home to women with lower life spans and why some policy factors should have mitigated these issues but haven’t.