Women live significantly longer in poor health than men

2024-03-05 08:25:46

Vienna (OTS) – According to a recent report from the World Economic Forum, women spend 25 percent more years of life in poor health than men. Gender inequality in medical research and care (gender health gap) remains high. Without a quick rethink, this gap could worsen further with the increasing use of artificial intelligence in medicine, warns gender doctor Alexandra Kautzky-Willer from MedUni Vienna on the occasion of International Women’s Day on March 8th.

Diseases of the cardiovascular system, especially heart attacks, are still considered typical men’s diseases, but at 37 percent they are the number 1 cause of death for women (men 32 percent). Cancers follow in second place with 21 percent: “There has been an increase here in recent years; lung cancer in particular is occurring in more and more women,” reports Alexandra Kautzky-Willer from the University Clinic for Internal Medicine III at MedUni Vienna). According to the Austrian Women’s Health Report 2022, the number of patients with gestational diabetes has doubled since 2010 – a drastic increase, at least 30 percent of which is due to obesity. The spread of obesity is also partly responsible for the fact that type 2 diabetes is increasing among women at a younger age and that they are disproportionately affected by cardiovascular complications. This also applies to diseases of the musculoskeletal system and the psyche: osteoarthritis, osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis are particularly common in women compared to men; The risk of developing depression over the course of a lifetime is two to three times higher for women than for men.

19.3 years in poor health
The burden of illness that women often have to bear during their years of employment is high: According to the World Economic Forum’s 2024 Gender Health Gap Report, which shows the situation in around 150 countries, women worldwide therefore live an average of 25 percent fewer years in good health health as men. The discrepancy in Austria is somewhat less significant: The Austrian Women’s Health Report says that women in this country live to an average of 83.7 years, but spend around 19.3 years in fair to poor health, compared to 16.2 years for men.

The causes of the gender health gap start with research: despite advances over the past 20 years, women are still underrepresented in clinical trials. This leads to data and knowledge gaps, but also to delayed diagnoses. A study conducted in Denmark over a 21-year period showed that women were diagnosed later than men for more than 700 diseases. In diabetes e.g. B. the delay is four and a half years. US analyzes show that fewer than half of women living with endometriosis have even been diagnosed. The effects of delayed diagnoses of heart attacks are particularly serious: the risk of dying from it is 20 percent higher for women than for men.

The existing data deficiencies can also lead to the gender health gap worsening as a result of increased AI applications in medicine: “If artificial intelligence learns predominantly from male data, we are moving further and further away from equal health opportunities between women and men “, warns Alexandra Kautzky-Willer, who was appointed as the first professor of gender medicine at MedUni Vienna in 2010. “We need more investment in women-specific research, the collection and analysis of gender-specific data and improving access to gender-specific care,” says Kautzky-Willer.

Further information:
Austrian Women’s Health Report 2022
WEF-Report 2024: Closing the Women’s Health Gap