title: Gender disparities in adult health: an examination of three measures of morbidity.
abstract: Recent examinations of gender differences in physical health suggest that women's disadvantage may be smaller than previously assumed, varying by health status measure and age. Using data from the 1997-2001 National Health Interview Surveys, we examine gender-by-age differences in life-threatening medical conditions, functional limitations, and self-rated health and consider whether potential mediating mechanisms (e.g., socioeconomic status, behavioral factors) operate uniformly across health measures. The results show that the gender gap is smallest for life-threatening medical conditions and that men do increasingly worse with age. For self-rated health, men are more likely to report excellent health at younger ages, but with increasing age this gap closes. Only for functional limitations do we find a consistent pattern of female disadvantage: Women report more functional limitations than men, and the gap increases with age. The ability of explanatory mechanisms to account for these patterns varies by the health measure examined.
authors.affiliation: Rice University, Department of Sociology MS-28, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX 77005-1892, USA. bkgorman@rice.edu
authors.forename: Bridget K
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Gorman
authors.forename: Jennan Ghazal
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Read
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000453:epidemiology; D016638:Critical Illness / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009017:Morbidity; D012649:Self Concept; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D016387:Women's Health