Gender Inequalities in Morbidity: A South African Investigation

Abstract

International studies of gender differences in health status largely attest that women have worse health conditions than men, which compromise women's contribution to economic development. Using the South African Demographic and Health Survey of 2003, we investigate whether this disparity also holds in developing countries such as South Africa. Our results concur with previous findings that South African women are more likely to suffer from poor health than men. They also reveal that the health gap is largely driven by a relatively higher prevalence of health conditions among women, rather than by the severity of the conditions that they face. Furthermore, contrary to the common view that the health gap closes with age, we find that the gap exhibits little variation across age groups and it persists in old age. This suggests a need for preventive measures to reduce the occurrence of health conditions in South Africa - which is vital for economic development.

Notes

2 Communicable diseases are infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS, cholera and influenza while non communicable diseases are non-infectious diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancers.

3 While we are aware that the two waves of National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) data for 2008 and 2011 have a health module, these datasets are not as comprehensive as the SADHS whose sole purpose is to collect information on health. Moreover, our analysis of the first wave of NIDS showed an unconditional gender health gap of 6.7% points for 15-75 year olds. The gap vanished after controlling for observable characteristics, which is suspicious given the country's health profile.