Women live more years in ill-health than men, finds gender health gap study

Women live longer than men but experience more years in poor health, according to a global gender health gap analysis that experts say underlines an urgent need for action to boost women’s health.

Globally, there are substantial differences between women and men when it comes to health, with limited progress in bridging health gaps over the past three decades, according to the study examining the impact of the world’s 20 leading causes of disease.

The findings were published in the Lancet Public Health journal.

Non-fatal conditions that cause illness and disability, such as musculoskeletal problems, mental health issues and headache disorders, particularly affect women, researchers found.

At the same time men are disproportionally affected by conditions that cause premature death, such as cardiovascular diseases, respiratory and liver diseases, Covid-19 and road injuries.

The health differences between women and men continue to grow with age, leaving women with higher levels of illness and disability throughout their lives, as they tend to live longer than men.

The study’s senior author, Dr Luisa Sorio Flor at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), University of Washington, said: “This report clearly shows that over the past 30 years global progress on health has been uneven.

“Females have longer lives but live more years in poor health, with limited progress made in reducing the burden of conditions leading to illness and disability, underscoring the urgent need for greater attention to non-fatal consequences that limit women’s physical and mental function, especially at older ages. Similarly, males are experiencing a much higher and growing burden of disease with fatal consequences.”

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The study is also a call for countries to boost their reporting of sex and gender data, said Sorio Flor. “The timing is right for this study and call to action – not only because of where the evidence is now, but because Covid-19 has starkly reminded us that sex differences can profoundly impact health outcomes.

“One key point the study highlights is how females and males differ in many biological and social factors that fluctuate and, sometimes, accumulate over time, resulting in them experiencing health and disease differently at each stage of life and across world regions.

“The challenge now is to design, implement and evaluate sex- and gender-informed ways of preventing and treating the major causes of morbidity and premature mortality from an early age and across diverse populations.”

The study looked at the disparities in the 20 leading causes of illness and death between men and women, across ages and regions.

The modelling research used data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021, and did not include sex-specific health conditions, such as gynaecological conditions or prostate cancers.

The analysis estimates that for 13 out of the top 20 causes of illness and death, including Covid-19, road injuries, and a range of heart, respiratory and liver diseases, the rate was higher in men than women in 2021.

Among the conditions evaluated, the findings suggested that the biggest contributors that disadvantage women are low back pain, depressive disorders, headache disorders, anxiety disorders, bone and muscle disorders, Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, and HIV and Aids.

These conditions contribute to illness and disability throughout life as opposed to leading to premature death, the study found.

The study’s co-lead author Gabriela Gil, from the IHME, said: “It’s clear that women’s healthcare needs to extend well beyond areas that health systems and research funding have prioritised to date, such as sexual and reproductive concerns.”

“Conditions that disproportionately impact females in all world regions, such as depressive disorders, are significantly underfunded compared with the massive burden they exert, with only a small proportion of government health expenditure globally earmarked for mental health conditions.

“Future health system planning must encompass the full spectrum of issues affecting females throughout their lives, especially given the higher level of disability they endure and the growing ratio of females to males in ageing populations.”

The analysis was limited to data on females and males and could not produce estimates for gender-diverse or sex-diverse groups, highlighting the need for more data spanning the sex and gender spectrums.