Illness and the feminine role: A theoretical review

Sex differences in health at ages 11, 13 and 15

“…Sex differences in health among adults have been explained in terms of the different roles, stresses, expectations, reporting behaviours, lifestyles and health practices, as well as biology, of males and females (e.g. Nathanson, 1975;Verbrugge, 1985;Verbrugge & Wingard, 1987;Miles, 1991, Mirowsky & Ross, 1995. The emergence of a female excess of depression during adolescence has been accounted for in similar terms, the suggestion being that females may be challenged by the expectations of the traditional female role in combination with more recent increases in educational expectations (West & Sweeting, submitted), while at the same time adopting a less instrumental coping style (Gove & Herb, 1974;Allgood-Merten et al, 1990;Petersen et al, 1991;Nolen-Hoeksema & Girgus, 1994;Cyranowski, Frank, Young & Shear, 2000).…”

Gender gap in health expectancy

“…They go beyond description of sex differences in health expectancy and assess the contributions of mortality and disability to gender differences in healthy life years and unhealthy life years, investigate temporal changes in sex differential health expectancy, as well as analyze contributions of time and age dimensions to the gender gap. They also show that there is still work to be done to indentify and quantify mechanisms underlying sex differences in longevity, health, and aging.Men die, women suffer: that is what is called the malefemale health paradox (Nathanson 1975;Wingard 1984;Waldron 1995;Case and Paxson 2005;Barford et al 2006;Oksuzyan et al 2008). At all ages male death rates are higher than that of females indicating that in terms of mortality women are healthier than men.…”

“…Men die, women suffer: that is what is called the malefemale health paradox (Nathanson 1975;Wingard 1984;Waldron 1995;Case and Paxson 2005;Barford et al 2006;Oksuzyan et al 2008). At all ages male death rates are higher than that of females indicating that in terms of mortality women are healthier than men.…”

“…Previous research on trends of the sex differential in mortality showed that within the first three quarters of the twentieth century the gender gap widened in most industrialized countries (Nathanson 1975;Waldron 1985;Rigby and Dorling 2007). Since the 1970s, sex differences in life expectancy start declining in most developed countries, although the timing of the narrowing of the sex differential in mortality varied across these countries (Gjonca et al 2005;Glei and Horiuchi 2007).…”

Sex Differences in Biological Markers of Health in the Study of Stress, Aging and Health In russia

“…Much of the literature has shown that women have higher survival rates but worse health compared with men of the same age, so called male-female health-survival paradox [1][2][3]. The magnitude of the male-female gap in life expectancy has been found to be smaller in western European (EU) countries than in the eastern EU countries [4].…”