Sex differentials in avoidable mortality and potential life expectancy gains in São Paulo, SP, Brazil: a cross-sectional study of the period 2014-2016.

Objective: to estimate potential life expectancy gains and differences between males and females, if avoidable deaths from circulatory system diseases, neoplasms and external causes had been eliminated in São Paulo, SP, Brazil, in the period 2014- 2016.

Methods: this was a cross-sectional study using data from the Mortality Information System (SIM), and the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), using multiple decrement tables.

Results: of the 81,087 deaths from the diseases studied here, 75.1% were classified as avoidable; elimination of avoidable deaths due to circulatory system diseases was found to generate the greatest potential life expectancy gains, followed by neoplasms among females and external causes among males.

Conclusion: magnitude of lost life expectancy due to avoidable deaths differs between males and females; sex differentials in avoidable mortality therefore persist, producing a series of challenges.