Canadian women report poorer quality of life than men as they age

Story here. Excerpt:

'The quality of life of Canadian men and women differs as they age, Statistics Canada reported Wednesday.

The agency followed 7,915 Canadians over age 40 for 10 years. Participants were asked to answer questions about their quality of life every two years from 1994 to 2004.

Health-related quality of life is defined as overall health status - such as the ability to see, hear, feel pain, and whether there are any emotional problems or mobility issues - and how it affects them daily.

"In summary, Canadians are, on average, quite healthy as they age from mid to later life," the study's authors concluded.

But at age 65, more women than men said they had more than one chronic condition and women were more likely to need help with activities of daily living, Heather Orpana, a senior researcher at Statistics Canada, and her colleagues found.

"We were interested in this result because men didn't show a similar important decline in that early decade," said Orpana, also an adjunct professor in health psychology at the University of Ottawa.

This study did not look at why, but followup research is exploring whether physical activity levels, life stress, social support or access to health care make a difference.'