Gender differences in the association between morbidity and mortality among middle-aged men and women

A. Singh-Manoux, A. Guéguen, J. Ferrie, M. Shipley, P. Martikainen, S. Bonenfant, M. Goldberg and M. Marmot

American Journal of Public Health, 2008, vol. 98, issue 12, 2251-2257

Abstract: Objectives. We examined gender differences inmortality,morbidity, and the association between the 2. Methods. We used health data from 2 studies of middle-agedmen and women: the British Whitehall II cohort of employees from 20 civil service departments in London and the 1989 French GAZEL (this acronym refers to the French gas and electric companies) of employees of France's national gas and electricity company. Participants were aged 35 to 55 years when assessed for morbidity and followed up for mortality over 17 years. Results. Male mortality was higher than female mortality in Whitehall II (hazard ratio [HR]=1.56; 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.28, 1.91) and the GAZEL cohort (HR=1.99; CI=1.66, 2.40). Female excess morbidity was observed for some measures in the Whitehall II data and for 1 measure in the GAZEL data. Only self-reported sickness absence in the Whitehall II data wasmore strongly associated with mortality among men (P=.01). Conclusions. Mortality was lower among women than among men, but morbidity was not consistently higher. The lack of gender differences in the association between morbidity and mortality suggests that this is not a likely explanation for the gender paradox, which refers to higher morbidity but lower mortality among women than among men.

Date: 2008
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2006.107912_8

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2006.107912

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