title: A sex- and gender-based analysis of allostatic load and physical complaints.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Biological sex and sociocultural gender influence stress-related diseases. Our goal was to explore whether sex and gender roles would predict both allostatic load and physical complaints.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study investigated whether sex- and gender-based factors would correspond to objective and subjective health outcomes.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty Montreal workers (mean [SE] age, 45.4 [2.1] years) participated. The 30-item Bem Sex Role Inventory was administered to assess scores for masculinity and femininity, which were then transformed into an androgyny index representing gender roles along a continuum. Fifteen biomarkers representing neuroendocrine, immune, metabolic, and cardiovascular systems were aggregated into an allostatic load index measuring physiological dysregulations. The 42-item Wahler Physical Symptoms Inventory was used to measure self-rated physical complaints.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results using logistic and linear regressions controlling for age revealed that increased masculinity predicted inclusion in the high allostatic load group (P = 0.010; odds ratio = 0.715), and sex did not; increased masculinity and female sex together predicted increased physical complaints (P = 0.008; adjusted r(2)= 0.30); and high allostatic load group membership corresponded to increased physical complaints adjusted (P = 0.001; adjusted r(2) = 0.301).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  That higher masculinity was related to increased objective physiological dysregulations and subjective physical complaints suggests an increased vulnerability to hyperarousal pathologies, such as cardiovascular disease, among masculine-typed individuals.
authors.affiliation: Fernand-Seguin Research Centre, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: Robert-Paul
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Juster
authors.forename: Sonia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lupien
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D052636:Allostasis / Q000502:physiology*; D015415:Biomarkers; D059026:Diagnostic Self Evaluation; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers