Oksuzyan Anna, Jacobsen Rune, Glaser Karen, Tomassini Cecilia, Vaupel James W, Christensen Kaare
The Danish Aging Research Center, Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, J. B. Winsloews Vej 9B, 5000 Odense, Denmark.
J Aging Res. 2011;2011:678289. doi: 10.4061/2011/678289. Epub 2011 Aug 10.
Background. The study aimed to examine sex differences in healthcare use before and after widowhood to investigate whether reduced healthcare use among widowers compared with widows may partially explain excess mortality and more adverse health outcomes among men than women after spousal loss. Methods. All individuals alive and aged at least 60 years in 1996 and who became widowed in the period from 1996 to 2003 were selected from the 5% sample of the total Danish population and all Danish twins. The healthcare use was assessed as the average daily all-cause and major system-specific medication use and the average annual number of visits to general physicians (GPs). Results. The average daily use of all-cause and major system-specific medications, as well as the number of GP visits increased over the period from 1 year before and up to 5 years after a spouse's death, but there were no sex-specific patterns in the trajectories of medication use and number of GP visits after conjugal loss. Conclusion. We found little support for the hypothesis that reduced healthcare use contributes to the explanation of more adverse health outcomes after conjugal loss in men compared with women in Denmark.
背景。本研究旨在调查丧偶前后医疗保健使用方面的性别差异，以探究与寡妇相比，鳏夫医疗保健使用减少是否可能部分解释了丧偶后男性比女性更高的死亡率和更差的健康结局。方法。从丹麦总人口的5%样本和所有丹麦双胞胎中选取了1996年时年龄至少为60岁且在1996年至2003年期间丧偶的所有个体。医疗保健使用情况通过全因和主要特定系统药物的平均每日使用量以及每年看全科医生（GP）的平均次数来评估。结果。从配偶死亡前1年到死亡后5年期间，全因和主要特定系统药物的平均每日使用量以及看全科医生的次数均有所增加，但丧偶后药物使用轨迹和看全科医生次数并无性别差异模式。结论。我们几乎没有找到证据支持以下假设：在丹麦，与女性相比，医疗保健使用减少有助于解释丧偶后男性更差的健康结局。
