Men may spend more time outside of the house, and may spend that time in work or other environments that are risky to their health

James S House Sociologist

Mr House, director of the Institute for Social Research at the university, said: "Living in cities also involves potentially stressful levels of noise, sensory stimulation and overload, interpersonal relations and conflict and vigilance against hazards ranging from crime to accidents.

"Men could have some greater exposure to whatever is hazardous in the urban environment," he suggested.

"Men may spend more time outside of the house, and may spend that time in work or other environments that are risky to their health.

"Or, it could be that women might have some social, psychological, or biological resources that buffer or protect them from the hazard of city life.

Cities

Sociologist Mr House and his team interviewed a nationally representative sample 3,600 adults over 25 for the first time in 1986. They then tracked them over the next seven and a half years.

Twenty-four per cent lived in cities, 47% lived in suburbs and 29% lived in small towns or rural areas.

Their age, sex, marital and economic status, and health status - including whether they smoked, drank or exercised was recorded.

By 1994, 542 had died. Researchers collated information on the cause of death, and looked at how that was linked with where the subjects lived, looking at men, women, blacks, non-blacks and under-65s.

Dr Ian Banks, chairman of the Men's Health Forum, said he was not surprised by the results. "It seems reasonable, based on what we already know. And it fits in with the difference between life expectancy between lower and higher income groups."

The research is published in the American Journal of Public Health.