Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore and National University Health System, Singapore; Schaeffer Center, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Department of Economics, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA.
Lancet Healthy Longev. 2021 Aug;2(8):e460-e469. doi: 10.1016/S2666-7568(21)00121-5.
Gender differences in life expectancy and societal roles have implications for a country's capacity to support its older population. Specifically, the longevity risk associated with longer life expectancy of women, with greater risk of morbidity entails different needs between genders in older age. We aimed to quantify gender differences in the ageing experience of older people in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries as a first step in identifying policy gaps and differences in the allocation of resources and social support for older men and women.
We constructed a multidimensional Ageing Index to account for gender differences in societal ageing, using mostly gender-disaggregated latest available data between 2015 and 2019, for 18 OECD countries. Our Ageing Index is a weighted sum of scores for five domains, which consisted of various measures, that are important for societal ageing: wellbeing, productivity and engagement, equity, security, and cohesion. The construction of the domains and their relative weighting was determined by the Research Network on an Ageing Society, an interdisciplinary group of academics. We computed the overall index and domain scores (from 0 to 100) for each gender and compared these scores between genders and countries.
In every country, gender differences in key domains of societal ageing favour men. Countries in northern Europe (ie, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway), the Netherlands, and Japan had high overall Index scores for both genders, whereas many eastern and southern European countries (eg, Hungary, Poland, and Slovenia) performed less well. Countries with the largest gender difference in Index scores include the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy, whereas Ireland, Spain, and Poland had the smallest difference. Gender differences were present for the domains of productivity and engagement, security, and cohesion. Gender differences favoured men for domain productivity and engagement (mean 10·2, 95% CI 7·8-12·6; p<0·0001), security (10·3, 7·8-12·7; p<0·0001), and cohesion (21·1, 13·9-28·1; p<0·0001). Although the domains of wellbeing and equity showed more mixed results, they nonetheless showed a slight advantage for men.
Our multidimensional index helps to identify specific gender differences along key domains of societal ageing in various OECD countries. Furthermore, the inter-country comparisons reveal those countries with more successful societal ageing, which could be instructive for policy makers.
John A Hartford Foundation and the Singapore Ministry of Education.
预期寿命和社会角色方面的性别差异对一个国家支持其老年人口的能力具有影响。具体而言，女性预期寿命延长所带来的长寿风险，加上更高的发病率风险，使得老年女性的需求与老年男性不同。我们旨在量化经合组织（OECD）国家中老年人老龄化体验方面的性别差异，作为确定政策差距以及为老年男性和女性分配资源和社会支持方面差异的第一步。
我们构建了一个多维的老龄化指数，以考虑社会老龄化方面的性别差异，使用的是 2015 年至 2019 年期间大多数按性别分类的最新可用数据，涵盖了 18 个经合组织国家。我们的老龄化指数是五个领域得分的加权总和，这些领域由对社会老龄化很重要的各种衡量标准组成：幸福感、生产力和参与度、公平性、安全性和凝聚力。这些领域的构建及其相对权重由一个老龄化社会研究网络确定，这是一个由学者组成的跨学科团体。我们为每个性别计算了整体指数和领域得分（0 到 100），并比较了两性和各国之间的得分。
在每个国家，社会老龄化的关键领域的性别差异都有利于男性。北欧国家（丹麦、瑞典、芬兰和挪威）、荷兰和日本，两性的整体指数得分都很高，而许多东欧和南欧国家（如匈牙利、波兰和斯洛文尼亚）的表现则较差。指数得分性别差异最大的国家包括荷兰、德国和意大利，而爱尔兰、西班牙和波兰的差异最小。生产力和参与度、安全性和凝聚力等领域存在性别差异。在生产力和参与度领域（平均值 10.2，95%CI 7.8-12.6；p<0.0001）、安全性（10.3，7.8-12.7；p<0.0001）和凝聚力（21.1，13.9-28.1；p<0.0001）方面，性别差异有利于男性。尽管幸福感和公平性领域的结果更为复杂，但它们仍然显示出对男性的轻微优势。
我们的多维指数有助于确定经合组织国家中不同关键社会老龄化领域的具体性别差异。此外，国家间的比较揭示了那些社会老龄化更为成功的国家，这可能对政策制定者有启示。
约翰·A·哈特福德基金会和新加坡教育部。
