Study finds men more likely to fall sick, die from 3 common health issues

Men in many countries are more likely to fall sick and die from hypertension, diabetes, and HIV/AIDS as compared to women, according to a new study.

However, compared to women, men were found to be less likely to seek medical care and adhere to treatment for these common health conditions due to norms related to masculinity and healthcare financing.

Men were also more likely to smoke, while women were more likely to be obese and engage in unsafe sex, the study, published in the journal PLOS Medicine, found. 

The research highlights sex-based differences at each step of the "health pathway", which includes being exposed to a risk factor -- such as smoking -- developing a condition, diagnosis, treatment and death, study authors said.

"Most of these differences are not explained by sex (biology) alone, but by socially-constructed gender -- highlighting the importance of taking a gender justice approach to reducing health inequities. A gender analysis can help to shape systems of health for all," Kent Buse, co-founder of Global 50/50, a UK-based research initiative seeking to achieve gender equality in global health, said.

The findings are in line with those from previous studies showing men using fewer preventive, diagnostic, and treatment services for conditions such as HIV and COVID-19, compared to women.

The study found that men and women received different care for hypertension in 200 countries.

Also in 39 countries such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Ecuador and Ethiopia, men and women received different care for diabetes, and in 76 countries, including Australia, Chile, Italy and Lesotho, they received different care for HIV.

Overall, the authors said strategies need to be developed for encouraging men to participate in preventive and health care services.

"We have long advocated the benefits of publishing sex disaggregated data. As our Gendered Health Pathways demonstrates, such data can reveal where the health journeys of men and women diverge be it in relation to the risk factors they are exposed to, their health care seeking behaviours or their experiences in health care systems. That is an important first step towards health equity," Buse said. 

"Males had significantly higher prevalence rates of conditions in 56 per cent of countries for HIV and AIDS, 30 per cent for diabetes, and four per cent for hypertension," the authors wrote.

"Females, on the other hand, had significantly higher prevalence rates of conditions in 14 per cent of countries for HIV and AIDS, five per cent for diabetes, and only in India for hypertension," they wrote.

Further, compared to women, death rates were found to be higher among men in 131 countries (64 per cent) for HIV/AIDS, 107 for hypertension (53 per cent) and 100 for diabetes (49 per cent).

Death rates among women were higher, compared to men, in 25 countries for HIV/AIDS, nine for diabetes and only in the United Arab Emirates for hypertension, the study found.

Women were also seen to have higher rates of diagnosis, treatment, and control.

For the study, data on risk factors, disease prevalence, and death rates were obtained from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) dataset.