Researching Gender and Health Care

Abstract

The debate on the relationship between gender and health in Western Europe and in the USA has been ongoing since the early 1970s (for a review of the literature, see Hunt and Annandale, 1999; Lahelma et al., 1999). This is particularly the case when physical health is considered. In the early years of the debate, it was generally accepted that two seemingly contradictory trends tend to operate at the same time. The first trend is that women consistently show high rates of morbidity — that is more self-reported illness and higher use of health services than men. The second and, seemingly, contradictory trend is that men have higher rates of mortality — on average, their life expectancy is five years shorter than that of women.