ABSTRACT
Women are sicker than men. They report spending more days in bed during the year due to illness compared to men, report more pain, are more depressed, perceive their health as less good, and report more physical symptoms than men. Yet women live longer than men! In fact, men are more likely than women to die from 8 of the 10 leading causes of death in the United States. This is the great paradox of gender and health. Women have higher rates of morbidity (i.e., illness), but men have higher rates of mortality.
