Gender and health: reassessing patterns and explanations
Abstract
Recent research on gender and health challenges the prevailing notion of women's generalized health disadvantage by revealing a more variable pattern of gender differences in health. As such differences come to be comprehended as more complex than previously thought, there is a need to reassess the pathways linking gender and health. Using data from a Canadian national probability sample, we examine: (1) gender differences in distress, self-rated health, chronic conditions, restricted activity and heavy drinking; and (2) the role of gender-based differential exposure and vulnerability to chronic stress and life events in explaining observed differences. We find that women report more distress and chronic conditions than men, but gender differences are reversed for heavy drinking, and negligible for self-rated health and restricted activity. Although women reported more chronic stress and life events, their greater exposure accounted for only some of the gender disparity in health, and only for distress. Differential vulnerability to stressors played no role in explaining gender differences in health. These findings raise questions about a gendered, generalized health response to the vicissitudes of life and suggest the need for further theoretical and empirical exploration of "gendered" experiences and their pathways to health.Download Info
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
Bibliographic Info
Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Social Science & Medicine.
Volume (Year): 52 (2001)
Issue (Month): 4 (February)
Pages: 547-559
Contact details of provider:
Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description
Order Information:
Postal: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
Web: http://www.elsevier.com/orderme/journalorderform.cws_home/315/journalorderform1/orderooc/id=654&ref=654_01_ooc_1&version=01
Related research
Keywords: Gender differences Morbidity Stress Vulnerability Canada;References
No references listed on IDEASYou can help add them by filling out this form.
Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Ellen M. Gee & Karen M. Kobayashi & Steven G. Prus, 2003. "Examining the "Healthy Immigrant Effect" in Later Life: Findings from the Canadian Community Health Survey," Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population Research Papers 98, McMaster University.
- Kirsi Talala & Taina Huurre & Hillevi Aro & Tuija Martelin & Ritva Prättälä, 2008. "Socio-demographic Differences in Self-reported Psychological Distress Among 25- to 64-Year-Old Finns," Social Indicators Research, Springer, vol. 86(2), pages 323-335, April.
- Katarina Boye, 2009. "Relatively Different? How do Gender Differences in Well-Being Depend on Paid and Unpaid Work in Europe?," Social Indicators Research, Springer, vol. 93(3), pages 509-525, September.
- Steven G. Prus & Ellen Gee, 2002. "Gender Differences in the Influence of Economic, Lifestyle, and Psychosocial Factors on Later-life Health," Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population Research Papers 76, McMaster University.
- Jinkook Lee & Regina A. Shih & Kevin Feeney & Kenneth M. Langa, 2011. "Cognitive Health of Older Indians: Individual and Geographic Determinants of Female Disadvantage," Working Papers 889, RAND Corporation Publications Department.
Lists
This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.Statistics
Access and download statisticsCorrections
When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:52:y:2001:i:4:p:547-559For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Wendy Shamier).
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.
If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.