Abstract
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Background
Keywords
Findings
Author
What is already known on this subject?
What does this study add?
Background
The literature suggests that women report worse health but live longer than men—a phenomenon known as the gender paradox in health and mortality. Although studies examining the paradox abound, relatively little is known about mechanisms underlying the gap.
Data and methods
With data on healthy life expectancy from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010, this article analyses the relationship between length of life and health among men and women in 45 more-developed countries. The proportion of life spent in poor health is used as an indicator of health. This approach accounts for gender differences in longevity and illustrates the female health disadvantage pattern more clearly.
Results
Life expectancy at birth and the proportion of life in poor health are closely related for both genders. Furthermore, the larger the female excess in longevity, the larger the female excess in the proportion of life in poor health.
Interpretation
By focusing on the proportion of life in poor health, this analysis suggests that women’s longevity advantage translates into a health disadvantages relative to men. The results indicate that women suffer from poor health not in spite of living longer, but because they live longer.
Keywords
Gender differences, health expectancy, morbidity, mortality, world health
Findings
In the 1920s, a pattern began to emerge in the health and mortality of men and women: as described by Lorber and Moore, "Women get sicker, but men die quicker.� Although men's mortality rate exceeds that of women at all ages, women tend to report worse health. Even excluding reproductive conditions, a sizeable gender difference remains in the prevalence of acute conditions and short-term disability. Older women exhibit greater rates of decline in physical functioning, are less likely to recover from disability, and more frequently report pain. Some studies find that women use health care services and prescription and non-prescription drugs more often than men do. These observations have prompted a great deal of research, construing the phenomenon as the "gender and health paradox,� the "paradox of 'weak but strong women' and 'tough but weak men,�' or the "male-female health-survival paradox.� [Full Text]
Authors
Marc Luy is with the Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital (IIASA, ÖAW/VID, WU), Vienna Institute of Demography of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria. Yuka Minagawa (y-minagawa@sophia.ac.jp) is with the Faculty of Liberal Arts, Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan.
What is already known on this subject?
- The literature shows that women report worse health but live longer than men.
- A large number of studies have examined this paradox, but relatively little is known about mechanisms underlying it.
- One line of research suggests that women’s longer life expectancy itself translates into their health disadvantage compared with men.
- Most research has focused on the absolute number of unhealthy years, thereby neglecting the fact that men and women have different life expectancies.
What does this study adds?
- This analysis examined gender differences in the proportion of life spent in poor health, and hypothesized that women’s longevity is a major contributor to their health disadvantage relative to men.
- Based on data for the 45 countries classified as "more-developed," longer life expectancy at birth is strongly associated with greater proportions of life in poor health for both genders.
- The larger the female excess in longevity, the larger the female excess in the proportion of life in poor health.
- Proportional analysis supports the hypothesis that women’s longevity advantage contributes significantly to their health disadvantage.
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