Study: Women live longer, but also suffer more health problems than men

A recent study found that women live with poor health longer than men. At the same time, the differences in health between women and men increase with age.

They occur between different sexes around the world, according to a global analysis of gender gaps in health. In the study, scientists looked at how people are affected by 20 major diseases. Conclusions of scientific work published in the Lancet Public Health.

How tells The Guardian, research has found that non-fatal conditions that cause illness and disability – headaches, musculoskeletal and mental health problems – particularly affect women. Men, in turn, suffer disproportionately from conditions that cause premature death – cardiovascular diseases, respiratory and liver diseases, and road injuries.

As we age, the differences between women and men in health continue to grow. This results in women, who generally live longer than men, suffering from illness and disability for longer. Dr. Louise Sorio Flor of the University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, senior author of the study, notes:

“This report clearly shows that global progress in health has been uneven over the past 30 years. There is an urgent need to pay more attention to the non-fatal consequences that limit women's physical and mental function, especially in older age. Similarly, men experience a much greater and growing burden of disease with a fatal outcome.”

The published study looked at differences in the 20 leading causes of disease and death between men and women, by age and region. To do this, they used data from the 2021 Global Burden of Disease Study. However, gender-related health conditions, such as gynecological diseases or prostate cancer, were not analyzed. The study showed that In men, the most common causes of illness and death were:

• COVID-19;
• road injuries;
• diseases of the heart, respiratory system and liver.

Women have a slightly different list of diseases; the ones that caused them the most harm were:

• lower back pain;
• depressive and anxiety disorders;
• headache;
• bone and muscle diseases;
• Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia;
• HIV and AIDS.

These conditions contribute to illness and disability throughout life but do not cause premature death. Gabriella Gil, another author of the study, states:

“Future health system planning must address the full range of issues affecting women throughout their lives, especially given the higher levels of disability they experience and the growing female-to-male ratio in the aging population.”

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