The DOI matches its Crossref record; 37 of the 37 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Do women over-report morbidity? Men’s and women’s responses to structured prompting on a standard question on long standing illness
Abstract
It is frequently observed in contemporary industrialised societies that although women live longer than men, they are sicker than men in that they report higher rates of morbidity, disability and health care use. One common element of the explanation for women's higher rates of morbidity is that there are gender differences in the way that symptoms are perceived, evaluated and acted upon. It is widely assumed that women will be more ready to report illness and to seek help and that they have greater flexibility in their lives to accommodate illness. The few studies that have examined men and women with the same conditions or symptoms are contradictory, but lend little support to this hypothesised greater propensity, yet it is still widely believed. Here we compare men's and women's answers to a global, commonly used question about chronic illness and to a series of more specific prompts and classify the conditions reported by an externally defined categorisation of severity and International Classification of Disease chapter. Contrary to the common expectation that women report higher rates of morbidity and are more ready to report mental health problems, we found: no gender differences in the initial reporting of conditions; men reported a higher proportion of their conditions in response to the initial global question; and no evidence that women were more likely to report 'trivial' or mental health conditions in response to the initial question.
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“The most common explanations about why this occurs have to do with differences in biological hazards, risks acquired through lifestyles, health and disease behaviors, and differences in the use of the health services (Macintyre, Ford, & Hunt, 1999; Verbrugge, 1989).”
From Health From a Gender Perspective (2017) · cites this paper as Macintyre, Ford, & Hunt, 1999
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Cites
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Men and health help‐seeking behaviour: literature review
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Health disparities and health equity: Concepts and measurement
Braveman, P. (2006) · Annual Review of Public Health · doi:10.1146/annurev.publhealth.27.021405.102103 · Cited by 1,570
Men: good health and high mortality. Sex differences in health and aging
Oksuzyan, A., Juel, K., Vaupel, J. W., & Christensen, K. (2008) · Aging Clinical and Experimental Research · doi:10.1007/bf03324754 · Cited by 692
Austad, S. N., & Fischer, K. E. (2016) · Cell Metabolism · doi:10.1016/j.cmet.2016.05.019 · Cited by 619
Gender differences in health: results from SHARE, ELSA and HRS
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Metadata
- Authors
- Macintyre, S., Ford, G., & Hunt, K.
- Affiliations
- Medical Research Council (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Macintyre, Sally
- Venue
- Social Science & Medicine
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 1999-01
- Volume
- 48
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 89-98
- ISSN
- 0277-9536 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2033999653
- Cited by
- 273
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 15
- FWCI
- 10.68
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Social Science & Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Medical Research Council
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Sex and Gender in Healthcare
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Gender, Health, and Social Inequality
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Health and Medical Studies
- Keywords
- women's health, chronic disease, structured prompting, mental illness, International Classification of Diseases, health status measurement, sex differences in health
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Age Factors, Analysis of Variance, Mental Disorders, Chronic Disease, Cross-Sectional Studies, Cues, Female, Health Status, Health Surveys, Humans, Male, Medical History Taking, Middle Aged, Morbidity, Scotland, Sex Factors, Sick Role, Cohort Studies, Chi-Square Distribution, Women's Health
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