People get older, but also sicker

According to Ricardo Rodrigues, who coordinates the “FutureGEN” project, co-funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, at the European Center for Welfare Policy and Social Research in Vienna, the two themes of health and care are characterized by a clear gender gap. “Women live longer than men, but have a lower proportion of healthy life years. They are significantly sicker than men, especially when they are old.”

Caring for the elderly and the sick remains a woman’s task
Moreover, it has been well researched that women are much more likely to care for sick relatives. However, the researchers were interested in whether anything would change here. The decade of life between 50 and 60 is considered to be particularly exciting, as caring for family members is statistically concentrated on this period.

Men would adapt to women in terms of health
For their research, the scientists located existing datasets in Europe and compared the age cohorts (note age groups) with each other. For example, the health of people over 50 and 60 was compared with the health of people over 70 and 80 when they were 50. According to Rodrigues, one of the hypotheses was that there would be an equalization in health. This has also happened, but not in the desired sense: The researchers recognized that men get older and sicker – and thus become like women.

According to Rodrigues, one possible reason is that men today survive diseases that would have killed them much earlier in the past. “We are good at keeping people alive longer. But we’re not good at keeping them healthy,” the scientist said.

Higher levels of gender equality emerged
Because datasets from different areas were used for the study, regional differences can also be identified. In Northern and Western Europe they found the same pattern: men and women are getting older, but are not healthier than their previous generation. An exception to this rule is the younger female cohort from Eastern Europe. According to Rodrigues, one possible explanation is that there has been a greater degree of gender equality in income and education in recent decades, which could have had a positive effect on women’s health. Overall, however, health patterns in old age varied more by sex, age and region than by cohort.

In the field of care, the scientists had two hypotheses: On the one hand, they expected that the proportion of women aged between 50 and 60 who care for relatives would have decreased due to increased employment. They also assumed that men would take on part of the care, as is already the case with childcare. However, both assumptions turned out to be incorrect, only in the case of older men it turned out that they would often take care of their wives. Caring for the parents, especially outside one’s own place of residence, is still clearly a woman’s task.

Women continue to care for relatives
Rodrigues believes that perhaps the most important thing policymakers need to realize is that, until now, longer life has not been associated with better health. This is especially relevant for estimating future care needs. Moreover, based on the knowledge gained, it seems likely that women will continue to work in the care of relatives. According to the expert, it shows that the fear of a ‘grey tsunami’ and of uncontrollable healthcare costs is exaggerated. But that comes at the expense of gender equality.