Gender Differences, Stress, and Health Outcomes

Board Of Regents, Nshe, Obo University Of Nevada, Reno, Reno NV

Investigators

Abstract

The primary objective of this study is to explain why men and women differ in the types of mental and physical illnesses that they tend to present. While women have higher rates of depression and anxiety, men are more likely to drink to excess or abuse illicit drugs. Men usually rate their overall health as better than women?s although they usually do not live as long, tending to die at younger ages than women from conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. Whereas women do often live longer, they suffer higher rates of non-life threatening but often painful chronic conditions such as migraines or asthma. This study approaches gender differences in mental and physical health by analyzing how men and women are exposed to differing types and amounts of unhealthy stressors in their daily lives. For example, men report greater work and financial stress, yet women experience more stress in their familial roles. This study also analyzes gender differences in access to healthful resources, such as a strong sense of mastery that is more common among men, and emotionally supportive social relationships that are more typical for women. By focusing on the confluence of stress exposure and resource accessibility, this study will demonstrate how gender role expectations translate into daily life conditions that both exacerbate and protect good health. These research questions will be tested by analyzing National Co-morbidity Survey data from a panel sample of 5,000 individuals age 15 to 54 in 1990-92 who were re-interviewed between 2000 and 2001. This data analysis will employ sophisticated measurement strategies and structural equation modeling to estimate models of multiple mental and physical health outcomes separately for men and for women. This study represents a substantial step forward from existing sociological research on gender and health by virtue of the high quality epidemiological data it will employ and the comprehensive approach to assessing multiple mental and physical health outcomes. Gender differences in health outcomes are substantial and potentially preventable. By employing powerful analytic and statistical techniques, this study will generate far-reaching conclusions about trends in the relationship between gender and health. The results will guide efforts to target gender-related liabilities in an effort to break the seemingly inevitable link between gender and undesirable health outcomes for a significant subset of our U.S. adult population.