Differences between Men and Women in Mortality and the Health Dimensions of the Morbidity Process

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Do men have worse health than women? This question is addressed by examining sex differences in mortality and the health dimensions of the morbidity process that characterize health change with age. We also discuss health differences across historical time and between countries. CONTENT: Results from national-level surveys and data systems are used to identify male/female differences in mortality rates, prevalence of diseases, physical functioning, and indicators of physiological status. Male/female differences in health outcomes depend on epidemiological and social circumstances and behaviors, and many are not consistent across historical time and between countries. In all countries, male life expectancy is now lower than female life expectancy, but this was not true in the past. In most countries, women have more problems performing instrumental activities of daily living, and men do better in measured performance of functioning. Men tend to have more cardiovascular diseases; women, more inflammatory-related diseases. Sex differences in major cardiovascular risk factors vary between countries—men tend to have more hypertension; women, more raised lipids. Indicators of physiological dysregulation indicate greater inflammatory activity for women and generally higher cardiovascular risk for men, although women have higher or similar cardiovascular risk in some markers depending on the historical time and country. SUMMARY: In some aspects of health, men do worse; in others, women do worse. The lack of consistency across historical times and between countries in sex differences in health points to the complexity and the substantial challenges in extrapolating future trends in sex differences.

Dietary and Plasma Carboxymethyl Lysine and Tumor Necrosis Factor-α as Mediators of Body Mass Index and Waist Circumference among Women in Indonesia

“…Although some papers state that females seldom follow these recommendations in comparison to males, the mortality rate from CVD is higher in males, especially in younger age [40]. This may be caused by the protective effect of the estrogens [39,40] and the sex chromosome of females [41,42]. If the consumption of high dietary CML is considered as an unhealthy diet, then the present study supports the statement above, by showing that ethnicity, level of education, intake of fat and intake of energy, are related to dCML and are further associated with WC, as one of the CVD risk factors, while only ethnicity is related to dCML and associated with BMI.…”

Not all females outlive all males: A new perspective on lifespan inequalities between sexes

“…Our analysis highlights the importance of looking at the randomness of the mortality process and reveals important similarities between the distribution of lifespans of females and males. Due to a mixture of cultural, social, epidemiological and biological factors, males tend to die earlier, on average, compared to females (Crimmins et al, 2019;Rogers et al, 2010). Still, we found that in almost all points in time, between one and two men out of four outlived a randomly paired woman.…”

“…The female survival advantage has been observed over time across many human populations and is rooted in a complex combination of biological and behavioral factors (Austad & Fischer, 2016;Crimmins et al, 2019;Gjonça et al, 2005;Preston & Wang, 2006;Rogers et al, 2010). Females have been found to have longer survival and lower death rates than men in most modern populations (Austad & Fischer, 2016;Barford et al, 2006;Beltran-Sanchez et al, 2015;Gjonça et al, 2005;Luy & Gast, 2014) and even under extreme mortality conditions (Zarulli et al, 2018).…”

Psychosocial problems affecting the elderly

“…Women also tend to suffer from a higher number of chronic diseases than men do, which is followed by their more frequent need for medical care. Women are believed to take on the role of patient faster and adapt to this situation better than men [18,19].…”