This could be explained by the fact that women are less present within the workplaces, but also by the fact that they continue to be discriminated against and offered fewer benefits (Lorber, 2009). Women are more responsible and smoke less than men throughout their young and mature life, but they smoke more than men during their later years.

In each age group, women exercise less than men and this could also be due to the sustained discrimination of women, who are still responsible for the household chores and as such have less time for leisure and physical activity (Lorber, 2009).

4. Are the differences between the values in your table significant and explain how they have an impact on the quality of life and/or the probability of a shortened life span?

The values in the table identify some important trends among the studied populations, such as the tendency of senior citizen women to smoke more than the men. This for instance indicates that women have an improved quality of life in youth and maturity as they are less exposed...

The quality of life is also improved by the time spent in physical activity, and through these lenses, the life span of men seems higher comparative to that of women. The life span is also decreased by obesity, which is generally more severe for men than for women; the differences for this variable are however decreased. Overall then, the quality of life and the cost effectiveness of the health insurance are pegged to a series of variables, smoking, physical exercise and obesity being just a few of them.