• Posted May 2, 2025

High Blood Pressure, Diabetes More Fatal For Men

Men are more likely than women to die from high blood pressure, diabetes and HIV/AIDS, after shrugging off medical care for the conditions, a new study says.

These differences crop up even though men and women are as likely to develop either high blood pressure or diabetes, researchers reported May 1 in the journal PLOS Medicine.

The results show that more needs to be done to encourage men to participate in preventive care and health care, researchers said.

Medicine also needs to accept that there are sex differences when it comes to health care, and craft guidelines and treatments that reflect reality, said senior researcher Angela Chang, an associate professor of public health with the University of Southern Denmark.

“The evidence is clear: sex differences persist at nearly every point along the health pathway, from higher smoking rates in men to higher obesity prevalence in women, yet interventions rarely reflect this,” Chang said in a news release.

For the study, researchers used data gathered from global health care databases to track differences between men and women at each step in the “health pathway.”

The pathway runs from a risk factor contributing to a health problem, followed by diagnosis and treatment of the problem, researchers said. If not treated adequately or at all, the problem can end in death.

Results show that men and women received different care for high blood pressure, diabetes and HIV/AIDS across dozens of countries.

The study also found that men and women sometimes have different risk factors for the same conditions.

For example, men smoked significantly more often than women in 86% of the countries considered, making that a leading risk factor for high blood pressure.

But obesity rates are higher among women in 65% of countries, researchers found.

“Such data can reveal where the health journeys of men and women diverge be it in relation to the risk factors they are exposed to, their health care seeking behaviors or their experiences in health care systems,” researcher Sarah Hawkes, co-CEO of Global Health 50/50 in Cambridge, U.K., said in a news release.

“That is an important first step towards health equity,” she continued. “Most of these differences are not explained by sex (biology) alone, but by socially-constructed gender – highlighting the importance of taking a gender justice approach to reducing health inequities.  A gender analysis can help to shape systems of health for all.”

More information

Harvard Health has more on the gender gap in health.

SOURCE: PLOS Medicine, news release, May 1, 2025