Differences In Emotional Responses Research Articles

Investigating how Cultural Contexts Shape Social Media Experiences and their Emotional Consequence

This study investigates the impact of cultural contexts on social media experiences and their emotional consequences. With over 4.8 billion global users, social media plays a pivotal role in shaping communication and interpersonal relationships. However, cultural factors such as individualism vs. collectivism, power distance, and uncertainty avoidance significantly influence how users engage with these platforms. Utilizing a quantitative approach, this research explores the relationships between cultural dimensions, social media engagement patterns, and emotional outcomes across diverse cultural groups. Data was collected from approximately 1,000 participants, equally divided between Western and Eastern cultural contexts, using standardized questionnaires assessing cultural orientation, social media usage, and emotional responses. The analysis revealed that individualism positively correlates with social media engagement (r = 0.450, p < 0.01), while collectivism negatively affects engagement frequency (r = -0.320, p < 0.05). High power distance (r = -0.290, p < 0.05) and uncertainty avoidance (r = -0.350, p < 0.01) negatively impacted user interactions, highlighting cultural constraints on online behavior. Furthermore, the study found that social media engagement mediates the relationship between cultural factors and emotional outcomes, with significant differences in emotional responses observed between Western (M = 4.80) and Eastern (M = 3.20) cultures. The findings emphasize the importance of culturally sensitive approaches in mental health interventions and social media platform design, advocating for tailored strategies that account for the unique needs and experiences of users from different cultural backgrounds. This research contributes to the growing body of literature at the intersection of culture, technology, and psychology, offering insights valuable for both academic and practical applications in enhancing user well-being in the digital age.

How does the same piano piece have a different impact on the mood of different age groups and different genders?

developing in the field of music therapy. This study aims to investigate the different emotional changes experienced by participants of different ages and genders when listening to the same piece of piano music. Participants will complete an emotional scale questionnaire (options include calmness, excitemend, anger, happiness, sadness) after listening to the same stimulus (the piano piece). The results will be analyzed through a paired t-test and presented graphically. The study finds that women tend to experience more positive emotions than men. Furthermore, there are significant differences in emotional responses between different age groups, particularly with regard to how older adults react emotionally to music. These findings suggest that the same piece of music can resonate differently with various demographic groups, playing a positive role in music therapy.

Seeing isn't always believing: Exploring the influence of misleading photos on consumer responses in hotel industry

This study examines the impact of misleading photos on consumer’s regret, distrust, and anger, leading to negative word-of-mouth communication. Using a scenario-based experimental design, data were collected from 259 participants via Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). The study further examines these interrelationships across leisure and business traveller groups as well as misleading photos posted on hotel’s official website or user-generated content (UGC). Findings reveal significant relationships between misleading photos and negative emotional responses, including regret, distrust, and anger. These emotions, in turn, affect negative word-of-mouth communication, with regret and anger being significant predictors. The multigroup analysis further identifies differences in emotional responses between leisure and business travelers, emphasizing the need for segment-specific marketing strategies. The study's implications highlight the importance of authenticity and transparency in visual marketing to enhance consumer satisfaction and loyalty while minimizing negative emotional responses. The study offers practical insights for hospitality businesses aiming to improve customer experiences and relationships.

Posttraumatic growth modulates the response to negative emotions related to COVID-19: An event-related potentials study.

There is increasing interest in identifying how posttraumatic growth (PTG) impacts emotional processing following traumatic events (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic). Previous research suggests that high PTG levels may lead to enduring changes in positive emotional processing. Despite this fact, little is known regarding brain activation and responses to stressful emotional stimuli. The present study utilised event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate whether individual differences in emotional responses toward neutral and negative emotional stimuli related to COVID-19 are related to self-reported PTG levels. A total of 77 participants were analysed: 21 in the high PTG group and 56 in the control group. The amplitude of the N2 was smaller in the high PTG group compared to the control group under both negative and neutral conditions. When viewing the negative emotion pictures (vs. neutral pictures), the N2 amplitude significantly decreased for the high PTG group in the right occipital and frontal-parietal areas, whereas no significant change was observed among the control group. In the time window Late Positive Potential (LPP) 600-1000ms, emotional stimuli and the group interaction were significant. Viewing negative pictures (vs. neutral pictures) decreased the LPP 600-1000ms amplitudes for the control group, mainly originating from the brain's frontal regions. However, there were no such significant differences for the PTG group. Due to the limited sample size and cultural differences, the applicability of these results to other regions or countries needs to be verified. The presented findings suggest that the impact of PTG during emotional response is reflected in both bottom-up (evidenced by the early ERP components) and top-down (evidenced by the later ERP components) processes. Individuals with high PTG may use a meditation-related emotional regulation strategy of acceptance at the basic stage and non-judgement at a later stage.

A Retrospective Study Distinguishing between Hyperacusis and Misophonia in children with Auditory Processing Disorder (APD)

ObjectivesDecreased sound tolerance (DST) is common in children with auditory processing disorder (APD). This study aimed to differentiate between hyperacusis and misophonia in children with APD. DesignA retrospective study evaluating outcomes of structured history and co-morbidity following Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) frame-work. Misophonia was considered as oversensitivity to eating/chewing sounds and hyperacusis as oversensitivity to other sounds. Study sampleTwo hundred and seventy-nine children (160 males; 119 females), 6-16 year-olds with NVIQ ≥80, diagnosed with APD between January 2021 and December 2022. ResultsOne hundred and forty-three out of 279 children with APD had DST, of which 107 had hyperacusis (without misophonia) and 36 had misophonia. Misophonia co-existed with hyperacusis in 35 children (97 %), and in one child misophonia occurred without hyperacusis. Misophonia was prevalent in older children, in females, and those with tinnitus. Fear and being upset were predominant emotional responses in hyperacusis (without misophonia) while disgust and verbal abuse were prevalent in misophonia (with or without hyperacusis). Compared to children without DST, the hyperacusis (without misophonia) and misophonia (with or without hyperacusis) groups had significant higher prevalence of ADHD, anxiety, and language impairment. Educational difficulties were similar in APD irrespective of the presence or absence of DST. Despite higher tinnitus prevalence in misophonia (with or without hyperacusis) along with similar co-morbidities and educational difficulties in both hyperacusis (without misophonia) and misophonia (with or without hyperacusis), the misophonia (with or without hyperacusis) group surprisingly had less support at school which was reflected in fewer Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). ConclusionsIn APD misophonia mostly co-exists with hyperacusis, with differences in emotional responses, tinnitus prevalence, and gender distribution when compared to hyperacusis (without misophonia). Increase in awareness about misophonia is needed, as children with misophonia may have unidentified needs. Larger scale prospective study is required to clarify if misophonia evolves from hyperacusis, and to explore the factors underlying ‘misophonia with hyperacusis’ and ‘misophonia without hyperacusis’. For clarity, DST studies need to specify if hyperacusis or misophonia co-existed when referring to hyperacusis or misophonia.

The Effect of Attentional Bias on Emotions in Patients with Breast Cancer.

Attentional bias may influence the emotional experiences of breast cancer patients, both positively and negatively. This study aimed to investigate attentional bias in breast cancer patients and its impact on their emotions. Thirty-eight breast cancer patients completed a modified dot-probe task and the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale to assess attentional bias and emotional states. Attentional bias was measured by analyzing response times to different stimuli in the modified dot-probe task. Emotional stimuli included 80 pairs of facial images depicting sad-neutral, fearful-neutral, happy-neutral, and neutral-neutral expressions. Attentional bias components were observed at stimulus presentation durations of 300ms and 1500ms. Differences in emotional responses among breast cancer patients with varying attentional biases were compared. Breast cancer patients exhibited attentional avoidance of sad and happy stimuli at 300ms. Further analysis revealed that patients who exhibited attentional avoidance of sad stimuli at 300ms reported higher levels of anxiety and stress. Those with attentional avoidance of fearful stimuli at 1500ms reported increased anxiety, while individuals showing attentional avoidance of happy stimuli or difficulty disengaging from happy stimuli at 1500ms reported higher levels of depression and stress. Breast cancer patients demonstrated an attentional bias toward emotional stimuli, particularly avoidance of sad and happy stimuli in 300ms. Different components of attentional bias were associated with distinct negative emotional outcomes.

Age-related differences in subjective and physiological emotion evoked by immersion in natural and social virtual environments

Age-related changes in emotional processing are complex, with a bias toward positive information. However, the impact of aging on emotional responses in positive everyday situations remains unclear. Virtual Reality (VR) has emerged as a promising tool for investigating emotional processing, offering a unique balance between ecological validity and experimental control. Yet, limited evidence exists regarding its efficacy to elicit positive emotions in older adults. Our study aimed to explore age-related differences in positive emotional responses to immersion in both social and nonsocial virtual emotional environments. We exposed 34 younger adults and 24 older adults to natural and social 360-degree video content through a low immersive computer screen and a highly immersive Head-Mounted Display, while recording participants' physiological reactions. Participants also provided self-report of their emotions and sense of presence. The findings support VR’s efficacy in eliciting positive emotions in both younger and older adults, with age-related differences in emotional responses influenced by the specific video content rather than immersion level. These findings underscore the potential of VR as a valuable tool for examining age-related differences in emotional responses and developing VR applications to enhance emotional wellbeing across diverse user populations.

Gender, Sexism, and Contempt in Candidate Evaluation

ABSTRACT Several recent studies have shown that the emotion of contempt, which is often linked to negative appraisals of competence and integrity, is the most important negative emotion in some electoral contests. Furthermore, gender-based stereotypes and prejudice have been shown to cause voters to evaluate female candidates in ways that seem contemptuous, i.e. as inferior and having undesirable traits. In this study, we analyze how sexism and gender-based prejudices may influence voters’ emotions (especially their levels of contempt) in response to female political candidates in general and to those who violate gender norms. We find strong differences in emotional responses between sexist and nonsexist voters.

The Relationship between Religiosity Level and Emotional Responses to Artificial Intelligence in University Students

This article aims to analyze the correlations between the level of religiosity and emotional responses to artificial intelligence (AI). In these times marked by the growing penetration of artificial intelligence into people’s everyday lives, it is important to identify the sociocultural determinants of attitudes towards this increasingly dynamically developing technology. A significant element of society’s cultural mosaic is religiosity, and, as such, it undoubtedly has an effect on emotional responses to AI. This is a reason to investigate how religions and religiosity impact attitudes towards AI. The study used Welch’s analysis of variance (ANOVA) to compare university students’ emotional reactions to AI across religiosity levels, which allowed for identifying significant differences in the levels of emotions such as fear, sadness, and anger between irreligious, religious, and indifferent groups. Significant differences in emotional responses to AI were found between individuals with different religiosity levels. Compared to irreligious and indifferent students, the religious ones more often showed intense emotions, such as fear and anger. The results indicate the need to include the issues of religion and religiosity in the process of designing and implementing AI. This may contribute to a greater acceptance of this technology in a society of individuals with different levels of religiosity. Understanding the effect of religiosity on the response to AI is also of considerable importance for the development and implementation of ethically responsible AI solutions, which should take account of the diversity of individuals’ beliefs and value systems.

Emotional Dimorphism in Pedagogy: Assessing Gender Response to Active Methodologies

This study investigated the interplay between gender, emotions, and active methodologies in education. It was found that women had a higher average of affective responses before activities (2.874 compared to 2.607 in men). Subsequently, men experienced an increase in their affect average, while it remained stable for women. The analysis showed an increase in positive emotions such as "Interested" and "Excited" across both genders. The Wilcoxon tests indicated significant differences in specific emotions before and after the activities. The Mann-Whitney Test revealed significant gender differences in emotional responses. The hypothesis analysis demonstrated notable gender-based differences in affective changes, particularly more pronounced in women. This underscores the importance of considering gender-specific emotional differences in teaching. From a pedagogical perspective, the findings highlight the necessity of tailoring teaching to these emotional differences and emphasize the effectiveness of active methodologies and critical pedagogy in enhancing engagement and participation. Educator training in gender emotional differences is crucial, along with ongoing reflection on teaching practices to effectively meet students' emotional needs and prioritize their emotional well-being and mental health

Neighbors’ Negative Emotional Responses to Intimate Partner Violence: The Role of Gender

The proximity of neighbors places them in an opportune position to detect in-home emergencies and provide critical assistance. The aim of this study is to test neighbors’ negative emotional responses to intimate partner violence (IPV) emergencies and differences in emotional responses depending on the victim’s gender and the bystander’s gender. A total of 384 adults from Israel participated in the study. Four vignettes were presented as hypothetical cases, with differences in the victim’s gender. Following each vignette, participants were asked to rate the intensity of the negative emotions that they experienced (frustration, helplessness, anger, worry, and sadness). The highest levels of negative emotional responses were observed in the three cases in which the victim was a woman, and the lowest was observed in the case in which the victim was a man. According to the results, IPV directed at women caused more negative emotions than IPV directed at men. Generally, a low emotional response predicts lower engagement or simply disengagement from a perceived threat, while a higher emotional response predicts greater engagement.

Factors affecting COVID-19's mental health impact on college students in the southeastern United States.

Emerging evidence confirms COVID-19's negative impact on college students' mental health; however, more research is needed to identify factors that promoted or hindered college students' mental health early in the pandemic. This exploratory study addressed this need. Participants were 697 students attending a large, state, urban university in the southeastern United States. Using a cross-sectional survey design, participants completed an anonymous, online survey assessing socio-demographic variables, mental health issues, and activities during the lockdown period in 2020. Findings suggest college students in the southeastern US who were women or transgender men and had pre-existing mental health conditions, fewer routine activities, and high exposure to COVID-19 news reported more mental health problems early in the pandemic. Students who exercised daily had fewer symptoms of anxiety and post-traumatic stress than students who exercised monthly, but there were no differences in emotional responses to COVID-19 based on exercise frequency. Tailored strategies to address college students' needs in response to the current or future pandemics are needed and should take into consideration factors that promote or hinder mental health. Patient or Public Contribution: College students were participants in this study. College students who were not participants in this study assisted with the implementation of this study.

Beyond Mortality: The Social and Health Impacts of COVID-19 among Older (55+) BIPOC and LGBT Respondents in a Canada-Wide Survey.

This study focused on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the marginalized populations-specifically Black and Indigenous people as well as People of Color (BIPOC) compared to White older adults and LGBT individuals compared to heterosexual older adults. Data were derived from our national online survey of Canadians aged 55+, conducted from 10 August to 10 October 2020. The survey explored the influence of COVID-19 on lifestyle changes, well-being, and planning for the future. Our sample comprised 4292 respondents. We compared sets of dichotomous variables with White vs. BIPOC, LGBT vs. heterosexual, and LGBT White vs. LGBT BIPOC respondents. Significantly more BIPOC than White individuals reported changes in accessing food (44.3% vs. 33.2%) and in family income (53.9% vs. 38.9%) and fewer reported feeling accepted and happy, and more felt isolated and judged. Significantly more LGBT than heterosexual respondents reported changes in routines and in accessing social support, medical and mental health care and more feeling depressed, lonely, anxious, and sad. More LGBT-BIPOC than LGBT-White respondents reported changes in access to food (66.7 vs. 30.6, p < 0.001); in family income (66.7 vs. 41.5, p < 0.005); and in access to mental health care (38.5 vs. 24.0, p < 0.05). The only difference in emotional response to COVID-19 was that more BIPOC-LGBT than White-LGBT respondents reported feeling judged (25.9 vs. 14.5, p < 0.05). These findings reflect a complex mix of the effects of marginalization upon BIPOC and LGBT older adults, revealing both hardship and hardiness and warranting further research.

Individual differences in emotional reactions to bistable perception.

To assess whether there are individual differences in emotional reactions to bistable images, and if so, to identify some of the psychological factors that predict them. Bistable images - which have two competing perceptual interpretations - have long been used in the scientific study of consciousness. Here we applied a different lens and investigated emotional reactions to them. Method Participants were adult humans in a cross-sectional study. Participants were presented with three bistable images and rated their emotional reactions to experiencing bistability. They also completed measures of intolerance of uncertainty, cognitive empathy, affective empathy, and negative affect. Results There were marked individual differences in these reactions, ranging from feeling highly negative to highly positive. These individual differences in emotional response to bistability were linked to a number of psychological processes: intolerance of uncertainty, cognitive empathy, and negative affect, but not affective empathy. Conclusions These finding have important implications because: (a) these emotional reactions could distort scientific investigations that use these stimuli to study non-emotional perceptual and cognitive processes; and (b) they highlight that this approach offers a useful window into how individuals react to these stimuli that demonstrate that there is not always a single viable interpretation of the world around us.

Differential Effects of Musical Expression of Emotions and Psychological Distress on Subjective Appraisals and Emotional Responses to Music.

This study aims to investigate how musical expressions of emotion and individuals' psychological distress impact subjective ratings of emotional response and subjective appraisals, including familiarity, complexity, and preference. A sample of 123 healthy adults participated in an online survey experiment. After listening to four music excerpts with distinct musical expressions of emotional valence and arousal in a randomized sequence. Participants rated subjective emotions of energy, tension, and valence, as well as subjective appraisals, on a visual analogue scale ranging from 0 to 100. The results of repeated measures ANOVA demonstrated significant differences in emotional responses and appraisals across the ratings for different music excerpts (p > 0.01, respectively). The generalized linear mixed model results further revealed a significant main effect of musical valence on all emotional response dimensions of energy (β = -4.73 **), tension (β = 14.31 ***), valence level (β = -18.81 ***), and subjective appraisal in terms of familiarity (β = -23.06 ***), complexity (β = -6.67 ***), and preference (β = -19.54 ***). Musical arousal showed comparable results except for effects on emotional valence ratings. However, significant effects of psychological distress regarding depression, anxiety, and stress scores were only partially observed. Findings suggest that the expression of emotions through music primarily influences emotional responses and subjective appraisals, while the influence of an individual's psychological distress level may be relatively subtle.

Features of Representations and Subjective Experience of the Images of Hallucinations, Fantasies, Dreams, and Imagination in Patients with Mental Disorders

Background : imagination, fantasies, dreams and hallucinations are relatively independent mental processes associated with the operation of images reflecting realistic or non-existent objects and situations. Researchers note the diagnostic potential of the features of experiencing these processes in patients with mental disorders, especially at the early stages. The aim of the study is to examine cognitive representations of the processes of imagination, fantasy, dreams and hallucinations, and the subjective experience of their perception in patients with psychotic and non-psychotic mental disorders. Patients and methods: the study involved respondents aged 16 to 29 years: patients with psychotic disorders ( n = 54), non-psychotic mental disorders ( n = 50) and conditionally healthy individuals ( n = 63). A structured clinical interview and a drawing technique (an example of an image of imagination, fantasy, dreams and hallucinations) were used. Results: it was revealed that 90% of healthy respondents were able to distinguish between the studied mental processes, compared with 77% of patients with non-psychotic and 35% of patients with psychotic disorders. In addition, the respondents’ concepts corresponded to highlighted scientific criteria in 85% of healthy individuals, 34% of patients with non-psychotic and 11% with psychotic disorders. Patients with psychotic disorders, in comparison with other groups, were significantly less able to control their imagination ( p = 0.001) and fantasies ( p = 0.001) and more often reported negative emotional experiences of imagination ( p = 0.001). Patients of both clinical groups were significantly more likely than healthy respondents to report having a negative dream experience ( p &lt; 0.005). They used significantly fewer colors when depicting images of imagination and fantasy, compared with the control group ( p = 0.001). Conclusions: mentally healthy people distinguish between images of imagination, fantasy, dreams and hallucinations; in patients with non-psychotic mental disorders, the boundaries between these processes are less rigid, and in patients with psychotic disorders they are practically blurred. Patients with non-psychotic disorders associate predominantly positive emotions with imagination, whereas patients with psychotic disorders — predominantly negative emotions. There are no statistically significant differences in emotional response to fantasies, dreams and hallucinations between these groups.

EEG-Based Emotion Recognition for Hearing Impaired and Normal Individuals With Residual Feature Pyramids Network Based on Time–Frequency–Spatial Features

With the development of affective computing, discriminative feature selection is critical for electroencephalography (EEG) emotion recognition. In this article, we fused four EEG feature matrices constructed by the preprocessed signal, the differential entropy (DE), the symmetric difference, and the symmetric quotient based on the International 10–20 system, which integrates time-, frequency-, and spatial-domain information of EEG signals. For the feature classification model, we used the space-to-depth (S2D) layer instead of the convolutional neural network (CNN) as the backbone to reduce the calculation of the model without affecting the classification performance. The residual feature pyramid network (RFPN) was proposed to obtain the correlation of channels, and then, the deep multiscale semantic information of EEG feature maps is captured. The emotion classification strategy was evaluated by DEAP, SEED, SEED-IV, and our hearing-impaired EEG dataset (HIED). The classification accuracies were 93.56% (four-class, DEAP), 96.84% (three-class, SEED), 91.62% (four-class, SEED-IV), and 87.74% (six-class, HIED). Furthermore, we also found that the difference in emotional response between the left and right brain regions of hearing-impaired subjects is more obvious than that of normal subjects.

Emotions, Mechanisms, and Individual Differences in Music Listening

Emotions have been found to play a paramount role in both everyday music experiences and health applications of music, but the applicability of musical emotions depends on: 1) which emotions music can induce, 2) how it induces them, and 3) how individual differences may be explained. These questions were addressed in a listening test, where 44 participants (aged 19–66 years) reported both felt emotions and subjective impressions of emotion mechanisms (Mec Scale), while listening to 72 pieces of music from 12 genres, selected using a stratified random sampling procedure. The results showed that: 1) positive emotions (e.g., happiness) were more prevalent than negative emotions (e.g., anger); 2) Rhythmic entrainment was the most and Brain stem reflex the least frequent of the mechanisms featured in the BRECVEMA theory; 3) felt emotions could be accurately predicted based on self-reported mechanisms in multiple regression analyses; 4) self-reported mechanisms predicted felt emotions better than did acoustic features; and 5) individual listeners showed partly different emotion-mechanism links across stimuli, which may help to explain individual differences in emotional responses. Implications for future research and applications of musical emotions are discussed.

Differences in Emotional Distress Among Black and White Breast Cancer Survivors During the Covid-19 Pandemic: a National Survey.

The Covid-19 pandemic is straining US healthcare resources, causing significant disruptions in cancer care. Prior to the pandemic, Black cancer survivors experienced a disproportionate burden of delays in cancer treatment compared to White cancer survivors. As a result of the pandemic, disruptions in care are widespread and affect cancer survivors regardless of race. This shift presented an opportunity to investigate differences in how Black and White cancer survivors experience disruptions in cancer care due to the pandemic. We conducted a national survey of adult breast cancer survivors, distributed online from 4/2/20 to 4/27/20. We used t-tests to compare cancer and non-cancer-related worry during the Covid-19 pandemic between Black and White breast cancer survivors. Analysis of data from 570 respondents (106 Black and 464 White) indicated significantly higher levels of distress among White respondents compared to Black respondents. Our results point to the importance of assessing race differences in emotional response to disruptions in cancer care during the pandemic. We suggest that differences in emotional distress may reflect differences in previous experience of treatment delays and coping strategies between Black and White breast cancer survivors.

Gender differences in emotional response to the COVID-19 outbreak in Spain.

ObjectiveWe aim to explore the differential presence of symptoms of anxiety, depression, and acute stress between men and women during the COVID‐19 outbreak, and to study the relationship between these symptoms and two environmental variables, coexistence, and violence.MethodsWe conducted a cross‐sectional study starting on March 29 to April 5, 2020, based on a national online survey using snowball sampling techniques. Symptoms of anxiety (Hamilton Anxiety Scale), depression (Beck Depression Inventory), and acute stress (Acute Stress Disorder Inventory) were assessed. Differences in the presence of symptoms and the relationship of coexistence and domestic violence were evaluated from a gender perspective.ResultsMen showed significant lower mean (SD) in anxiety, depression, and acute stress levels than women [HARS, 14.1 (9.8) versus. 18.4 (10.2), F = 56.2, p < .001; BDI 3.4 (3.9) versus 4.5 (4.3), F = 16.6, p < .001, and ASDI 3.6 (2.9) versus 4.7 (3.1), F = 39.0, p < .001, respectively), as well as a weaker depressive syndrome (28.1% males versus 39.9% females, χ2 = 25.5, p < .001). In addition, an interaction Gender × Coexistence was found in anxiety (F = 56.2, p < .001) and acute stress (F = 3.52, p = .06) and, according to depressive symptoms, an interaction Gender × Violence was found marginally significant (F = 3.3, p = .07).ConclusionsFindings indicate that women present greater severity in symptoms of anxiety, depression, and acute stress. Moreover, loneliness and violence specifically worsen the emotional state in women. These results can undoubtedly guide better healthcare planning adopting a gender perspective.