Gender gap in health causes high costs
Published: Wednesday, Jan 17th 2024, 11:31
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According to a report, women's disadvantage in health care causes an annual loss of one trillion dollars (860 billion Swiss francs) to the global economy. Women are in poor health for a quarter longer than men, according to the report, which was published on Wednesday at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.
According to the report, one of the reasons for this is that the focus of medical research, diagnosis and treatment is clearly on men.
According to the data, every dollar invested in women's health would lead to three dollars in projected economic growth. A large part of this growth would come from sick women recovering and returning to work. The gender health gap causes around 75 million years of lost life each year due to poor health. This corresponds to one week per woman per year.
Women's diseases are poorly researched
The report estimates that eliminating inequalities in endometriosis and menopause, which only affect women and have long been considered under-researched, could contribute 130 billion dollars to global gross domestic product (GDP) by 2040. Findings from the research indicated that less than half of women living with endometriosis receive the correct diagnosis.
The 42-page report, which was compiled by the WEF with the help of the McKinsey Health Institute and the Swiss pharmaceutical company Ferring, also points out that treatments and diagnoses sometimes benefit men more than women. For example, asthma inhalers were found to be significantly less effective in women than in men. According to previous studies, many diseases are diagnosed later in women than in men. It takes two and a half years longer for women to be diagnosed with cancer than men.
According to WEF health expert Shyam Bishen, the report shows that "investing in women's health must be a priority for every country". The WEF therefore announced the launch of a global alliance for women's health. According to the report, 55 million dollars have been pledged for the alliance.
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