Gender Health Gap in Austria: Women Express Concern

Complaints include waiting times for appointments and insufficient time with doctors. The representative survey presented on Thursday also reveals that women view medical care significantly more critically than men. This includes issues such as insensitive behavior and the trivialization of their complaints.

Women Express Concern Over Gender Health Gap

More than half of the women surveyed by Marketagent expressed strong concern about the so-called Gender Health Gap. This refers to gender inequality in medical research, diagnostics, and treatment. In general, men (73 percent) also gave significantly more top ratings for the healthcare system than women (64 percent). Overall, according to the barometer, 71 percent desired more gender-sensitive care through research, education, and better training of healthcare personnel.

"Women in Austria experience daily that their complaints are not taken seriously enough or that gender-specific differences in medical care are insufficiently considered," said Jovana Nović, COO of Allianz Austria. "When women are not taken seriously and risks are overlooked as a result, it is not only a medical issue but also a societal problem."

Gender Health Gap Largely Unknown to the Public

However, while the issue of the Gender Health Gap and gender medicine is scientifically proven, three-quarters of the population, according to the analysis, have never heard of the terms. Women and younger people are somewhat better informed. 28 percent of women compared to only 17 percent of men, as well as 34 percent of 14- to 19-year-olds and 29 percent of 20- to 29-year-olds, are aware of it.

The fact that women receive painkillers with a delay (64 percent) and the fact that medical research is heavily male-dominated (58 percent) were the most surprising according to the survey. Differences in the diagnosis of depression and heart attacks also caused astonishment for about half of the respondents.

"Medical studies have long been primarily focused on male subjects and were used as a standard for treating everyone. Many are not aware that this bias still has an impact today. Men and women differ in symptoms, disease progression, and response to therapy - and this is still too little considered in medical practice," explained Alexandra Kautzky-Willer, Professor of Gender Medicine at MedUni Vienna. The consequences of this are misdiagnoses, inadequate therapies, and a structural gender health gap. "Gender medicine is therefore not a special topic, but a prerequisite for fairer and better care for all people."

Austrians Feel Healthy

According to the analysis, it was shown positively that Austrians predominantly feel healthy. Six out of ten people rate their own health status as excellent to good. Trust in the treating doctors (77 percent), in doctors in general (66 percent), and in medical research (65 percent) is relatively high. The social competence of doctors is only rated as good by 54 percent. It is also evident here that especially women (47 percent) perceive the empathy of doctors as less good compared to men (61 percent).

Many women do not feel taken seriously. Seven out of ten have been dissatisfied with a treatment or have been annoyed by a doctor. Among men, it was only slightly more than every second. 16 percent of female patients have also had the impression that their gender had a negative influence on the treatment.

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.