Gender differences in health among the Japanese elderly

Evidence has emerged recently to challenge the widely held notion that women experience more physical health problems than men. The purpose of this study is to re-evaluate this issue with a broad range of health measures gathered in a culturally diverse population—older adults in Japan. Taken as a whole, the findings suggest that there are gender differences in health. However, patterns of female excess in morbidity depend upon the type of health status measure that is examined. In particular, the data reveal that elderly women experience more functional disability and rate their overall health less favorably than older men. In contrast, a consistent pattern of gender differences in health fail to emerge when specific acute and chronic health problems are evaluated.