Half of the women in Bages and Moianès suffer from a chronic illness, according to a study by the Research Unit of the Catalan Health Institute (ICS) Central Catalonia and the Jordi Gol Primary Care Research Institute (IDIAPJGol). The work was led by IDIAPJGol researcher Georgina Pujolar within the framework of the PECT BAGESS project, promoted by several entities operating in the region in the healthcare and social fields, with the aim of improving the quality of life and fostering social inclusion for people with dependency and chronic diseases.
The study was carried out from a gender perspective and using ICS data from the population assigned to primary care teams in the two counties, around 160,000 people (85% of the total population of the area), between 2018 and 2021. Among the results, it stands out that almost 76,000 inhabitants of Bages and Moianès (46.6%) had, during this period, at least one chronic disease. With respect to the total population studied, 50% of women presented at least one chronic condition, while the figure for men was around 43%.
The research coordinated by Pujolar also revealed that the percentage of chronicity is higher in women of all ages except those under 15, and that 22.6% of the population studied presented multimorbidity—defined as two or more chronic conditions—which was also higher among women (25.8%) compared to men (19.4%), and most frequent in people over 75 years old (73.8%).
The most common chronic conditions detected were mental disorders (notably anxiety and depression) and cardiovascular diseases. Specifically, the most frequent illnesses among the population studied were anxiety (19.1%), hypertension (18.03%), lung diseases (9.6%), osteoarthritis (8.5%), depression (8.2%), and type 2 diabetes mellitus (7.2%).
Looking at the data by sex, it is observed that women suffer more from anxiety, depression, osteoarthritis, and fibromyalgia, with values that reach double those of men. Overall, diseases related to chronic pain, neurodegenerative disorders (such as Alzheimer’s disease and dementia), and mental disorders show higher rates among women, whereas men show higher rates of neurodevelopmental disorders (such as autism and ADHD) and metabolic diseases (such as diabetes). Respiratory and cardiovascular diseases were recorded similarly in both sexes.
More chronic diseases
Pujolar’s study also shows that the prevalence of all diseases increased between 2018 and 2021 for both women and men. The age group most affected by chronic diseases is people over 75 years old (93.1%), followed by the group aged 45–74 (60%), except for mental disorders, which are more frequent in the 15–45 age group, both among women (25.5%) and men (15.7%).
The data collected in primary care centers in Bages and Moianès between 2018 and 2021 show, according to Pujolar, that “concern about the mental health of the population, and specifically of young people, is increasing” in the post–covid-19 pandemic context. The results align with other studies that also suggest “that the risk of suffering mental disorders such as anxiety and depression increases in cases of chronic illness,” the researcher states. For this reason, mental health care from a holistic approach—“not based solely on medicalization”—is key to preventing an increase in disease burden and multimorbidity.
This research highlights the need to review and adapt approaches to chronic conditions with a gender perspective and taking into account all stages of life. The results point to greater chronicity among women in “conditions that involve lower lethality but affect, equally or to a greater extent, the quality of life of those who suffer from them.”
The article Chronicity in Central Catalonia with a Sex and Gender Perspective: A Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study, published in the scientific journal International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, was conducted in a context of a global increase in chronic disease, the researcher explains, in a region—Bages-Moianès—“that is an aging and highly complex territory, where there is a differential impact and a biased approach to chronicity depending on sex and gender.” “Further analyses with a gender perspective that take into account the social determinants of health are needed to determine how axes of inequity influence chronicity processes and the care they require,” she adds.
Research technicians Queralt Miró (statistician), Aïna Fuster (pharmacist), and Laia Sola (statistician), as well as the head of the Research Unit of ICS Central Catalonia–IDIAPJGol, Josep Vidal (family doctor), also participated in the study.
Article reference
Pujolar-Díaz G, Miró Catalina Q, Fuster-Casanovas A, Sola Reguant L, Vidal-Alaball J. A Sex- and Gender-Based Approach to Chronic Conditions in Central Catalonia (Spain): A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2024 Jan 29;21(2):152. doi: 10.3390/ijerph21020152. PMID: 38397643; PMCID: PMC10887657
