New Delhi: Men are at higher risk of premature death than women, but females tend to spend more of their lifetime in poor health, according to a new global study published in the journal Lancet Public Health on Thursday (May 2). The findings, based on data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021 to compare the total number of life years lost to illness and premature death, reveal stark differences between females and males across the 20 leading causes of disease burden over the past 30 years. It also underscores the need for gender-responsive approaches to health.
Musculoskeletal conditions, mental health conditions, and headache disorders, which though non-fatal lead to poor health, were found to be more prevalent among women. These conditions increase with age and as women tend to live longer than males, they face higher levels of illness and disability throughout their lives.
On the other hand, men were found to be affected by Covid-19, road injuries, cardiovascular diseases, and respiratory and liver diseases — all leading to their premature death.
Luisa Sorio Flor at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), University of Washington, US said,
One key point the study highlights is how females and males differ in many biological and social factors that fluctuate and, sometimes, accumulate over time, resulting in them experiencing health and disease differently at each stage of life and across world regions.
“The challenge now is to design, implement, and evaluate sex- and gender-informed ways of preventing and treating the major causes of morbidity and premature mortality from an early age and across diverse populations,” Dr Luisa added.
Ischaemic heart disease, lung cancer, and chronic kidney disease, sex differences tend to affect men at young ages and widen over the life course. Covid, the leading cause of health loss in 2021, affected 45 per cent more men than females.
Luisa said,
The timing is right for this study and calls to action — not only because of where the evidence is now, but because Covid-19 has starkly reminded us that sex differences can profoundly impact health outcomes.
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NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which in its Season 10 is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Ayushmann Khurrana. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In a world post COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental well-being, self-care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.
