Gender Gap In Health Research Articles

Gender health gaps: The role of risky addictive behaviors

Despite significant improvements in health and longevity, the gender gap in health persists. Using longitudinal data from 15 waves of the HILDA survey for the period from 2005 to 2019, this paper examines the impacts of risky addictive behaviors given by smoking, drinking and gambling on health outcomes and the gender gap in general and mental health in Australia. To identify the causal effects of cigarette and alcohol consumption, we utilize exogeneous policy changes in the Australian Wine Equalization Tax (WET) and cigarette excise taxes to instrument alcohol and cigarette consumption, respectively. For gambling, we utilize state-level number of gambling machines to instrument the problem gambling severity index. We find that Australian females tend to have better general health but worse mental health outcomes than their male counterparts. More importantly, our instrumental variable estimates reveal the role of risky addictive behaviors in influencing the gender gap in health. Specifically, smoking and gambling widen the gender gap in general health, whereas alcohol consumption plays no role in affecting the gender gap in general health. For mental health, our results show that smoking and gambling reduce the gender gap in mental health, whereas alcohol consumption tends to increase the gender gap in mental health. We find that social support, neighborhood trust, dietary choice and life satisfaction are important channels through which risky addictive behaviors influence general and mental health outcomes. Our results have important policy implications as health quality in general, and gender health equality in particular, are important determinants of standards of living, productivity, and economic development.

Gender Differential Effects of Health Status on Growth Process in sub-Saharan Africa

This study examines the gender-disaggregated effect of health status on the growth trajectory of sub-Saharan Africa region. The renewed interest in the health status – economic growth nexus stems from the increasing recognition of the importance of health and gender roles in achieving economic growth and sustainable development, particularly in the developing regions of sub-Saharan Africa characterized by poor health, gender inequality and low growth. Health status is proxy by gender-disaggregated data on life expectancy at birth. The study employs the generalized method of moment (GMM) modelling technique, and the result shows that there is gendered differences in the effect of health status on the economic growth process of sub-Saharan Africa. In particular, we find that female life expectancy is positively associated with economic growth. Thus, the study recommends that efforts aimed at promoting health wellbeing in the region should be enhanced. In particular, policies geared towards bridging the gender gap in health should be enacted and implemented.

Gender disparities in health at older ages and their consequences for well-being in Latin America and the Caribbean

Women live longer but can expect to spend more years in poorer health compared to men. In the context of population aging and declining gender ratios at older ages, there are increasing concerns about how this disadvantage in female health will affect well-being and sustainability, particularly in developing regions that are rapidly aging. Our study compares differences in health expectancies at older ages for men and women in order to assess gender disparities in health.We use data from the Survey on Health, Well-Being, and Aging in Latin America and the Caribbean to decompose the gender gap into total and age-specific mortality and disability effects in seven cities in the region. Our results show that at older ages, higher disability rates among women reduced the gender gap in healthy life expectancy by offsetting women’s mortality advantage. In addition, we find that women’s mortality advantage decreased almost systematically with age, which reduced the contribution of the mortality effect to the gender gap at older ages. Although the gender gap in health followed a similar pattern across the region, its decomposition into mortality and disability effects reveals that there was substantial variation among cities. Thus, across the region, the implications of the gender gap in health for well-being vary, and the policies aimed at reducing this gap should also differ.

Aging and Gender Health Gap: A Multilevel Analysis for 17 European Countries

The European population is aging and their declining capacity makes older Europeans more dependent on the availability of care. Male and female health needs at older ages are different, yet there are contradictory results on the study of gender inequalities in health among the older European population. The aim of this article is twofold: first, we study whether there is a general gender health gap at older ages across Europe. Secondly, we analyze the existence of an increasing or decreasing universal association between the gender health gap and age among the older European population or whether, by contrast, this depends on the type of welfare state. To achieve these goals, we use data from the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) for respondents aged 50 and over in 2015, and we carry out several multilevel random intercept logistic regressions for European countries. Our results show that when we split European countries into groups according to the type of welfare state, we only find a significant gender health gap in older people in Southern and Social Democratic countries. Some differences have been found in the links between the gender health gap and age among European countries. Old women report worse health than men at all ages in Southern countries while in Social Democratic states it is only true for women aged 80 and over. In Bismarckian states there are barely any gender differences, while the gender health gap has no clearly defined bias. Between the ages of 60 and 79, men from Eastern European countries report poorer health, while after 80 it is women who report poorer health. In general, we found the widest gender inequalities in health for the oldest population group, especially in Southern and Eastern European countries.

Opportunity Costs of Unpaid Caregiving: Evidence from Panel Time Diaries

We examine the association between unpaid caregiving by older Americans and time allocated to labor supply, home production, leisure, and personal care. After controlling for time-invariant heterogeneity using panel time diaries, we find that older caregivers reported reduced time allocated to each domain fairly evenly overall. However, women showed a stronger associated decline in personal care and labor supply while men showed stronger declines in time devoted to home production. Gendered differences are more pronounced with intensive and non-spousal care. Results highlight time-cost differentials that could be driving observed gender gaps in health and labor market outcomes among unpaid caregivers. The study also underscores the serious endogeneity concerns between caregiving and broader time allocation patterns and highlights the need for additional research.

Gender Equality and Gender Inequalities in Self-Reported Health: A Longitudinal Study of 27 European Countries 2004 to 2016.

Significant gender-based health inequalities have been observed across Europe, with women reporting worse health than men. Still, there has been little examination of how the gender–health gap has changed over time, and how it has been shaped by societal gender equality. We used data from the Statistics on Income and Living Conditions Eurostat database (EU-SILC), involving 2,931,081 participants aged 25–64, for 27 European countries. Logistic regressions were performed to model the association between self-reported bad health and gender, in general and over time. Analyses were stratified by employment, education, and clusters of countries according to levels of Gender Equality Index (GEI). Adjusting for age, year, and country, bad health was 17% more likely among women, but this disadvantage ceased after accounting for education and employment. Gender–health inequalities were larger among countries with higher GEI scores and among low-educated groups. The gender–health gap did not reduce significantly between 2004 and 2016, in general and within subgroups. Although societies are becoming more equal, persistent inequalities in employment and income still lead to sustained health differences between men and women.

Locus of control and the gender gap in mental health

We examine whether gender differences in locus of control (LoC) explain gender gaps in mental health using longitudinal data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey. We find that gender differences in LoC is an important factor contributing to the well-recognised gender gap in mental health in favour of males. Our preferred estimates, that take into account differences in the distribution of characteristics of males and females, suggest that at the mean a unit increase in internal LoC for females would narrow the mental health gender gap by 2.2% and that if LoC of women were the same as that of men, it could close the gender gap in mental health by as much as 18.8%. This general conclusion is generally robust to evaluating the gender gap at the 10th and 90th quantile and a suite of sensitivity checks including different ways of measuring key variables and alternative approaches to the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition. Our findings suggest that resilience education programs that teach positive control beliefs to children should be designed particularly with girls in mind and in such a way as to encourage participation by girls.

Locus of Control and the Gender Gap in Mental Health

We examine whether gender differences in locus of control (LoC) explain gender gaps in mental health using longitudinal data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey. We find that gender differences in LoC is an important factor contributing to the well-recognised gender gap in mental health in favour of males. Our preferred estimates, that take into account differences in the distribution of characteristics of males and females, suggest that at the mean a unit increase in internal LoC for females would narrow the mental health gender gap by 2.2% and that if LoC of women were the same as that of men, it could close the gender gap in mental health by as much as 18.8%. This general conclusion is generally robust to evaluating the gender gap at the 10th and 90th quantile and a suite of sensitivity checks including different ways of measuring key variables and alternative approaches to the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition. Our findings suggest that resilience education programs that teach positive control beliefs to children should be designed particularly with girls in mind and in such a way as to encourage participation by girls.

Determinants and impact of role-related time use allocation on self-reported health among married men and women: a cross-national comparative study

BackgroundResearch on the effects of marriage on health maintains that there is a gender-specific gradient, with men deriving far greater benefits than women. One reason provided for this difference is the disproportionate amount of time spent by women on housework and childcare. However, this hypothesis has yet to be explicitly tested for these role-related time use activities. This study provides empirical evidence on the association between role-related time use activities (i.e. housework, childcare and paid work) and self-reported health among married men and women.MethodsData from the Multinational Time Use Study (MTUS) on 32,881 men and 26,915 women from Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the US were analyzed. Seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) models and multivariable logistic regression were used to estimate the association between role-related time use activities and self-reported health among married men and women.ResultsThe findings showed that education, occupation and number of children under 18 years old in the household were the most consistent predictors of time allocation among married men and women. Significant gender differences were also found in time allocation, with women sacrificing paid working time or reducing time devoted to housework for childcare. Men, in contrast, were less likely to reduce paid working hours to increase time spent on childcare, but instead reduced time allocation to housework. Allocating more time to paid work and childcare was associated with good health, whereas time spent on housework was associated with poor health, especially among women.ConclusionsTime allocation to role-related activities have differential associations on health, and the effects vary by gender and across countries. To reduce the gender health gap among married men and women, public policies need to take social and gender roles into account.

The gender health gap in Europe\u2019s ageing societies: universal findings across countries and age groups?

We provide a systematic country and age group comparison of the gender gap in several generic health indicators and more specific morbidity outcomes. Using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement (SHARE), we examined the gender gap in the prevalence of poor self-rated health, chronic health conditions, activity limitations, multimorbidity, pain, heart attacks, diabetes, and depression in three age groups (50–64, 65–79, and 80+) based on linear probability models with and without adjustment for covariates. While women were typically disadvantaged regarding poor self-rated health, chronic health conditions, activity limitations, multimorbidity, pain, and depression, men had a higher prevalence of heart attacks and diabetes. However, the gender gap’s magnitude and sometimes even its direction varied considerably with some age trends apparent. Regarding some health indicators, the gender gap tended to be higher in Southern and Eastern Europe than in Western and Northern Europe. All in all, the presence of a gender health gap cannot be regarded as a universal finding as the gap tended to widen, narrow or even reverse with age depending on the indicator and country.

SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS AND THE GENDER GAPS IN LATE AGE SELF-REPORTED HEALTH IN TAIWAN

The socio-economic status (SES) are the fundamental causes of gendered health disparity. However, how the gender gap in self-reported health (SRH) mediate by SES at old age over time is still unresolved. Some argue the SES measures play more and more important role to explain the gender gap in SRH at later age because the feminization of poverty and female’s longer widowhood increased the gap over life course through cumulative disadvantage approach. But others SES-SRH gradients in gender gap keep convergent by age since the effects of SES on health for male has declined and make the gender gap in health disparity vanish over time. Our results show for every age, increasing SES is associated with declining risk of reporting poor health and the effects can explain much more for women than men, especially for the younger old below age 70. The effects of SES and marriage on the magnitude of the gender gap are substantial approximately 40 percent among seventy year olds to the full gender gap among 55-64 year olds in 2006.

A multi-dimensional perspective on the gender gap in health among older adults in India and China: application of a new ageing measure

AbstractA continuous rise of female life expectancy above that of males among older adults in India and China may give the impression that the relative gender gap in health in these countries is decreasing. However, given the systemic gender bias against older females in these countries across multiple dimensions of health, a fuller understanding of the gender gap in health calls for a multi-dimensional perspective. We estimate a multi-dimensional old-age threshold (MOAT) that specifies different old-age thresholds for female and male populations which accommodates multiple dimensions related to physical, intellectual and general health. We use the MOAT to evaluate the multi-dimensional gender gap in India and China by differencing the MOAT for females with that of males. Females in both countries have a lower MOAT than their male counterparts, indicating an earlier advent of ‘old age’ for females. The multi-dimensional estimates of the gender gap are also higher than the estimates based on only one dimension of health. A considerable level of variation is also observed in the gender gap across provinces. The study illustrates the need to understand the gender gap in health in India and China from a multi-dimensional perspective and provides an innovative way to quantify such a gap. Province-specific as well as health dimension-specific interventions are vital in reducing the gender gap among older adults in these countries.

Shattering the Glass Ceiling: (Re) reading the World Economic Forum Report of 2017 on Woman Empowerment

Empowerment of women has set on fire an awakening in women in which they have started to set their seats at the top of the table. In this age and time, there are more women in boardroom tables and even in the political arena than ever before. Women have become determined to push through the glass ceiling, and there are significant milestones that have been achieved in different fields that women have set their eyes on. The glass ceiling, however, just like a dark cloud still hovers over women and hinders their success. This paper is informed by the World Economic Forum report of 2017 which states that women have closed gender gaps in health and education areas. However, inequalities still burgeon in the workplace and also in politics. This paper aims to provide an introduction that discusses the concept of the glass ceiling, the reasons as to why the glass ceiling still exists in the workplace and politics, and the ways women can shatter the glass ceiling in finding their freedom that has no cloud of inhibitions. This paper concludes that women need support from other women, from organisations, from men and the society at large to shatter the glass ceiling or at least make cracks on the ceiling.

Sexual health in the French military: a multidimensional and gendered perspective

BackgroundSexual health in the military comprises a range of concerns including sexually transmitted infections (STI), unintended pregnancy, sexual violence and sexual dysfunction. This study aims to estimate the prevalence of sexual health concerns by gender in the French military and compare these prevalences to estimates in the general population.MethodsCOSEMIL, the first sexual health survey in the French military comprises a probability sample of 1500 military personnel. Chi-square tests were used to compare lifetime abortion, STIs and sexual assault, and recent sexual dysfunction and sexual satisfaction by gender and explore the association between these indicators and current sexual risk (condom use at last intercourse).ResultsWomen were more likely than men to declare negative sexual health outcomes, with the greatest difference related to sexual assault (24.3% versus 5.1% of males, p < 0.001) and sexual dysfunction hindering sexuality (15.2% of females versus 5.3% of males, p < 0.001). Women were also twice as likely to report ever having an STI (6.7% versus 3.4%, p = 0.03). Comparison with the French general population indicates lower percentages of STIs among military men (2.9% versus 4.9%) and higher percentages of abortion (17.6% versus 14.3%) forced sex (10.6% versus 7.4%) and sexual dysfunction (14.2% versus 9.3%) among military women.ConclusionThese results highlight gendered pattern of sexual health in the French military with women suffering greater sexual risks than men. Military health services should include women’s health services to address the sexual and reproductive health gender gap.

Gender equality is crucial to the fight for better HIV treatment access and outcomes in the MENA region

Gender equality is crucial to the fight for better <scp>HIV</scp> treatment access and outcomes in the <scp>MENA</scp> region

Do gender gaps in education and health affect economic growth? A cross-country study from 1975 to 2010.

We use system-generalized method-of-moments to estimate the effect of gender-specific human capital on economic growth in a cross-country panel of 127 countries between 1975 and 2010. There are several benefits of using this methodology. First, a dynamic lagged dependent econometric model is suitable to address persistence in per capita output. Second, the generalized method-of-moments estimator uses dynamic properties of the data to generate appropriate instrumental variables to address joint endogeneity of the explanatory variables. Third, we allow the measurement error to include unobserved country-specific effect and random noise. We include two gender-disaggregated measures of human capital-education and health. We find that gender gap in health plays a critical role in explaining economic growth in developing countries. Our results provide aggregate evidence that returns to investments in health systematically differ across gender and between low-income and high-income countries.

Gender health gap and education in Europe. A comparison between health funding models

Gender health gap and education in Europe. A comparison between health funding models

Illness narratives of substance users from urban India

Reading Veena Das’s book 'Affliction: Health, Disease, Poverty' was a journey of revelations for me as a health professional. The various dialects of illness that are spoken in the rapidly urbanizing Indian community become coherent, lending a voice to the distinctive sociocultural distress of the men and women who form a part of it. A discussion of the social aspects of illness brings certain questions to mind: Does the medical community fully understand those it tries to help? Is the therapeutic dialogue about the social dimensions of medical problems or vice versa? How do we bridge the mental health gender gap in our societies? To try and find some answers, I present the illness stories of two women who sought treatment at drug abuse treatment clinics in the urban slums of New Delhi. This think piece describes substance use disorder in the context of the cultural processes that have shaped these women, their families, and society.

A Cross-National Study of the Gender Gap in Health Among Older Adults in India and China: Similarities and Disparities.

The present cross-sectional study examines gender differences in three major health measures among older adults in India and in China, and investigates whether these differences can be explained by major sociodemographic and health risk characteristics. The study included 7,150 individuals in India and 13,367 individuals in China aged 50-plus who participated in the WHO Study on Global AGEing and Adult Health in 2007-2010. Logistic regression models for self-reported health (SRH) and ordinary least square regression models for grip strength and cognitive function were used to investigate gender differences in health. A consistent female disadvantage was found in India and in China for all three health measures. Compared to their male counterparts, women in the Indian and the Chinese samples had, respectively, 38% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.22, 1.56) and 36% (95% CI: 1.25, 1.48) higher risk of reporting poor SRH, 9.56 kg (95% CI: 9.91, 9.22) and 11.95 kg (95% CI: 12.29, 11.62) lower grip strength, and 3.64 (95% CI: 3.96, 3.32) and 1.99 (95% CI: 2.28, 1.71) lower cognitive scores. The magnitude of the female disadvantage in poor SRH and in grip strength changed very little when adjustments were made for marital status, education, place of residence, smoking status, height, and number of chronic conditions; but these characteristics accounted for about 50% of the gender gap in cognitive function. In these study populations, major sociodemographic and health risk characteristics accounted for very small parts of the gender differences in health, except in cognition.

Gender career divide and women's disadvantage in depressive symptoms and physical limitations in France

This study investigated the relationship between women's disadvantage in mental health and physical functioning and gender differences in career backgrounds. Sexual division of labor persists and key career characteristics are overrepresented in women: low-skilled first job, downward occupational trajectory, interruptions. These interrelated characteristics are usually linked to poor health. Their overrepresentation in women may be related to the female-male health gap; however, it may not if overrepresentation transposed into substantially weaker associations with poor health outcomes. To address this question, we used the French population survey “Health and Occupational Trajectories” (2006) and focused on 45–74 year-old individuals who ever worked (n=7537). Past career characteristics were qualified by retrospective information. Logistic regressions identified past characteristics related to current depressive symptoms and physical limitations. Non-linear decomposition showed whether these characteristics contributed to the gender health gap, through their different distribution and/or association with health. The overrepresentation of unskilled first jobs, current and past inactivity and unemployment in women contributed to their excess depressive symptoms. These contributions were only slightly reduced by the weaker mental health-relatedness of current inactivity in women and increased by the stronger relatedness of low-skilled and self-employed first jobs. Overrepresentation of current inactivity, past interruptions and downward trajectories also contributed positively to women's excess physical limitations. Gender-specific career backgrounds were significantly linked to women's disadvantage in mental health and physical functioning. We need to further explore whether equalization of opportunities, especially at the early stages and in terms of career continuity, could help to reduce women’s mental and physical health disadvantage.