Macintyre S, Ford G, Hunt K
MRC Medical Sociology Unit, Glasgow, UK.
Soc Sci Med. 1999 Jan;48(1):89-98. doi: 10.1016/s0277-9536(98)00292-5.
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.
在当代工业化社会中经常可以观察到，尽管女性比男性寿命更长，但她们比男性更容易生病，因为她们报告的发病率、残疾率和医疗保健使用率更高。对女性较高发病率的一种常见解释是，在症状的感知、评估和应对方式上存在性别差异。人们普遍认为，女性更愿意报告疾病并寻求帮助，而且她们在生活中有更大的灵活性来适应疾病。少数针对患有相同病症或症状的男性和女性的研究结果相互矛盾，几乎没有支持这种假设的更大倾向，但这种观点仍然被广泛相信。在这里，我们比较了男性和女性对一个关于慢性病的全球通用问题以及一系列更具体提示的回答，并根据外部定义的严重程度分类和国际疾病分类章节对报告的病症进行分类。与普遍预期的女性报告更高的发病率且更愿意报告心理健康问题相反，我们发现：在病症的初始报告方面没有性别差异；男性在回答最初的总体问题时报告的病症比例更高；而且没有证据表明女性在回答最初问题时更有可能报告“轻微”或心理健康病症。
