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Sex differences in morbidity and mortality

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  • Anne Case
  • Christina Paxson

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Abstract

Women have worse self-rated health and more hospitalization episodes than men from early adolescence to late middle age, but are less likely to die at each age. We use 14 years of data from the U.S. National Health Interview Survey to examine this paradox. Our results indicate that the difference in self-assessed health between women and men can be entirely explained by differences in the distribution of the chronic conditions they face. Although on average women have worse selfrated health than men, women and men with the same chronic conditions have the same self-rated health. The results for hospital episodes are somewhat different. While the effect of poor health on hospital episodes is the same for men and women, men with respiratory cancer, cardiovascular disease, and bronchitis are more likely to experience hospital episodes than women who suffer from the same chronic conditions, implying that men may experience more severe forms of these conditions. The same is true for mortality. Although the effects of many chronic conditions on the probability of death are the same for women and men, men who report having cardiovascular disease and certain lung disorders are significantly more likely to die than women with these conditions. While some of the sex difference in mortality can be explained by differences in the distribution of chronic conditions, an equally large share can be attributed to the larger adverse effects of these conditions on male mortality. Conditions for which we find excess male hospitalizations and mortality are generally smoking-related.

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File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1353/dem.2005.0011
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Bibliographic Info

Article provided by Springer in its journal Demography.

Volume (Year): 42 (2005)
Issue (Month): 2 (May)
Pages: 189-214

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Handle: RePEc:spr:demogr:v:42:y:2005:i:2:p:189-214

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Web page: http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/13524

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References

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  1. Anne C. Case & Angus Deaton, 2003. "Broken Down by Work and Sex: How Our Health Declines," NBER Working Papers 9821, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  2. Michael Baker & Mark Stabile & Catherine Deri, 2001. "What do Self-Reported, Objective, Measures of Health Measure?," NBER Working Papers 8419, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  3. Macintyre, Sally & Hunt, Kate & Sweeting, Helen, 1996. "Gender differences in health: Are things really as simple as they seem?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 617-624, February.
  4. Fred C. Pampel, 2002. "Cigarette Use and the Narrowing Sex Differential in Mortality," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 28(1), pages 77-104.
  5. Arber, Sara & Cooper, Helen, 1999. "Gender differences in health in later life: the new paradox?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 61-76, January.
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Cited by:
  1. Gerard J. van den Berg & Maarten Lindeboom & France Portrait, 2006. "Economic Conditions Early in Life and Individual Mortality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(1), pages 290-302, March.
  2. Zhou Yang & Donna B. Gilleskie & Edward C. Norton, 2004. "Prescription Drugs, Medical Care, and Health Outcomes: A Model of Elderly Health Dynamics," NBER Working Papers 10964, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  3. Adriana Lleras-Muney, 2005. "Commentary on "Immigration, health, and New York City: early results based on the U.S. new immigrant cohort of 2003"," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, issue Dec, pages 153-155.
  4. Timothy Halliday, 2007. "Income Volatility and Health," Working Papers 200729, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics.
  5. Case, Anne & Fertig, Angela & Paxson, Christina, 2005. "The lasting impact of childhood health and circumstance," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 365-389, March.
  6. Andreea Balan-Cohen, 2008. "Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise? The Impact of the Old Age Assistance Program on Elderly Mortality in the United States," Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University 0719, Department of Economics, Tufts University.
  7. Halliday, Timothy J., 2008. "Heterogeneity, State Dependence and Health," IZA Discussion Papers 3463, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  8. Hendrik Jürges, 2006. "True health vs. response styles: Exploring cross-country differences in self-reported health," MEA discussion paper series 06105, Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy.
  9. Nabanita Datta Gupta & Mona Larsen, 2010. "The impact of health on individual retirement plans: self-reported versus diagnostic measures," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(7), pages 792-813.
  10. Timothy J. Halliday, 2007. "Income Risk and Health," Working Papers 200710, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics.
  11. Timothy Halliday, 2006. "The Impact of Aggregate and Idiosyncratic Income Shocks on Health Outcomes: Evidence from the PSID," Working Papers 200606, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics.
  12. Kemptner, Daniel & Jürges, Hendrik & Reinhold, Steffen, 2011. "Changes in compulsory schooling and the causal effect of education on health: Evidence from Germany," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 340-354, March.
  13. Eugene Choo & Michael Denny, 2006. "Wearing Out -- The Decline in Health," Working Papers tecipa-258, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
  14. Cally Ardington & Anne Case & Mahnaz Islam & David Lam & Murray Leibbrandt & Alicia Menendez & Analia Olgiati, 2009. "The impact of AIDS on intergenerational support in South Africa: Evidence from the Cape Area Panel Study," SALDRU Working Papers 27, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
  15. Kaare Christensen, 2008. "Human Biodemography: Some challenges and possibilities," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 19(43), pages 1575-1586, September.

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