Women live longer but sicker lives than men who suffer more deadly diseases

Women live longer in worse health than men, a Lancet study has found, because diseases that disproportionately affect men are more deadly.

Back pain, depression and dementia drive women to suffer more years of disability, while men are more likely to die prematurely from heart attacks, lung cancer and kidney disease, a 30-year global analysis has found.

Experts warned that little progress had been made since the 1990s to address the “uneven” disparities in health.

Scientists at the Universities of Washington and California assessed the 20 leading causes of disease worldwide and found that the differences between the sexes first start to emerge in puberty before widening with time.

Men are more likely to have health conditions that lead to premature death, while women live longer so face higher levels of illness and disability throughout their lives.

Women suffered more years of poor health with illnesses like lower back pain, around 1.3 per cent of years women live on average versus 0.79 per cent for men. There were similar trends for depression, at 1.02 per cent compared to 0.67 per cent, and dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, at 0.63 per cent to 0.42 per cent.

Meanwhile, men were disproportionately affected by 13 of the 20 conditions, but they were more likely to lead to premature deaths, and included, road injuries, heart diseases, and respiratory and liver diseases, with differences continuing to grow with age.

‘More years in poor health’

Dr Luisa Sorio Flor, senior author from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), University of Washington, said the report showed that “global progress on health has been uneven”.

“Females have longer lives but live more years in poor health, with limited progress made in reducing the burden of conditions leading to illness and disability, underscoring the urgent need for greater attention to non-fatal consequences that limit women’s physical and mental function, especially at older ages,” she said.

“One key point the study highlights is how females and males differ in many biological and social factors that fluctuate and, sometimes, accumulate over time, resulting in them experiencing health and disease differently at each stage of life and across world regions,” she added.

The experts called for earlier intervention and targeted healthcare based on sex to address the differences experienced by both men and women when it comes to disease.

National health plans

Dr Vedavati Patwardhan, co-lead author from the University of California, said: “We need national health plans and strategies to address the health needs of men throughout their lives, including interventions targeting behavioural risks such as alcohol use and smoking that typically begin at a young age.”

Gabriela Gil, co-lead author from the IHME, said: “It’s clear that women’s healthcare needs to extend well beyond areas that health systems and research funding have prioritised to date, such as sexual and reproductive concerns.”

The modelling research used data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021, and did not include sex-specific health conditions, such as gynaecological conditions or prostate cancers.

The report was published in the journal Lancet Public Health.