Women's death in Scandinavia--what makes Denmark different?

Objective: To compare the mortality for women in Sweden, Norway and Denmark in order to search for clues for the low life expectancy of Danish women.

Methods: Prospective age-period-cohort study covering 40 years for all Swedish, Norwegian and Danish women aged 40-84 during the period 1960-2000, and born 1900-1950.

Outcome Measures: Relative risks and 95% confidence intervals for deaths.

Results: The high risk of dying among Danish women was associated with being born between the two World Wars, and that a similar pattern was not found for women in Norway and Sweden. A tendency of a cohort effect was observed for Swedish women born around 1940.

Conclusions: The currently low life expectancy of Danish women compared with that of women in Norway and Sweden is partly a transitional phenomenon caused by excessive death rates for women born between the two World Wars. Data on smoking prevalence by birth cohort and age indicate that a high percentage of Danish women in these cohorts were smokers throughout their adult life.