Thirty years of gender differences in self-assessed health : the case of Slovenia

Malnar, Brina (author), Hafner-Fink, Mitja (author)

Background: This article explores gender trends in self-rated health in Slovenia over the period of thirty years. The main research goals are to examine the associations between gender, social class and health, establish the extent that the patterns of subjective health converge with those in other countries and identify the most vulnerable health groups. Methods: The study is based on six waves of the Slovenian Public Opinion survey carried out between 1981 and 2012 on representative samples of the adult Slovenian population. The main dependent variables are the respondentʼs self-assessed health and three indicators of psychosomatic health - experiences of insomnia,irregular heartbeat and anxiety. The main independent variables are gender and socio-economic status. The relationship between them was examined using Chi-square tests. Results: The 30 year trend is consistent with prior studies, which found that women report poorer self-assessed health than men. In Slovenia, this gender gap was observed in both social classes, but was more pronounced for women in the lower educated category. The higher prevalence of stress symptoms among women supports the theory of chronic exhaustion resulting from the dual-role strain. Conclusions: In Slovenia the welfare state was able to buffer the adverse effects of increased economic stresses to a significant extent after 1991, resulting in favourable health outcomes for both genders. Dismantling these arrangements may result in short-term financial gains but is likely to trigger long-lasting negative consequences for public health, especially in the case of vulnerable groups such as women.

• Language: English
• Keywords: samoocena, zdravje, ženske, moški, Slovenija, razlike
• Work type: Not categorized
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Year: 2013
• Number of pages: Str. 99-107
• Numbering: Letn. 52, št. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-44457
• UDC: 316.334:614(497.4)
• ISSN on article: 0351-0026
• DOI: 10.2478/sjph-2013-0012
• COBISS.SI-ID: 2859237
• Publication date in RUL: 10.07.2015

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Zdravstveno varstvo. Slovenian journal of public health
• Publisher: Nacionalni inštitut za javno zdravje, Sciendo
• ISSN: 0351-0026
• COBISS.SI-ID: 3287810

Secondary language

• Language: English
• Title: Trideset let razlik v samooceni zdravja med spoloma

Abstract

Uvod: Članek obravnava smernice samoocen zdravja po spolu v Sloveniji za obdobje 30 let. Glavni raziskovalni cilj je proučiti povezavo med spolom, družbenim razredom in zdravjem, ugotoviti, v kakšnem obsegu so vzorci samoocen zdravja skladni s tistimi v drugih državah in razpoznati zdravstveno najranljivejše družbene skupine. Metode: Študija temelji na šestih anketnih meritvah raziskave Slovensko javno mnenje, ki so bile izvedene v obdobju 1981 in 2012 na reprezentativnih vzorcih odraslega prebivalstva Slovenije. Poglavitne odvisne spremenljivke so anketirančeva samoocena zdravja in trije kazalniki psihosomatskega zdravja - nespečnost, razbijanje srca in nemir. Poglavitni neodvisni spremenljivki pa sta spol in socialno-ekonomski položaj. Zvezo med njima smo ugotavljali s hi-kvadrat testom statistične značilnosti. Rezultati: 30-letni trend je skladen s predhodnimi študijami, ki ugotavljajo, da ženske slabše ocenjujejo svoje zdravje kot moški. V Sloveniji je razlika med spoloma opazna v obeh družbenih razredih, a je precej izrazitejša pri ženskah v nižji izobrazbeni kategoriji. Večja prisotnost simptomov stresa pri ženskah potrjuje teorijo kronične utrujenosti kot posledice pritiska različnih družbenih vlog. Zaključek: V Sloveniji je socialna država po letu 1991 uspela omiliti negativne posledice povečanega ekonomskega stresa, kar se je odrazilo v ugodnih zdravstvenih smernicah pri obeh spolih. Razgradnja teh mehanizmov bi lahko prinesla kratkoročne finančne prihranke, obenem pa bi zelo verjetno imela dolgotrajne negativne posledice za zdravje prebivalstva, zlasti pri ranljivih skupinah, med katerimi so tudi ženske.