U.S. worst in developed world for women’s health outcomes | TechTarget

Women in the United States can expect to live two years less than their peers in other high-income nations, with a new brief from the Commonwealth Fund showing women’s health lagging internationally.

Indeed, the U.S. underperforms in life expectancy, health status, access to care and affordability of care for women compared to other similarly developed nations, the report showed.

“Compared to women in other high-income countries, American women have long had worse access to the health care they need,” the report authors said. “While the U.S. spends more on health care than other countries do, surveys regularly find that Americans avoid seeking care because of costs at the highest rates, even as the U.S. continues to lead in the prevalence of chronic disease.”

All of that has led to significantly poorer outcomes for American women compared to those in other nations.

Using data from the Commonwealth Fund’s 2023 International Health Policy Survey, the CDC and the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), the researchers determined that women in the U.S. simply don’t live as long as their counterparts.

While the average life expectancy at birth is age 80 in the U.S., it’s higher in other countries. In the United Kingdom, the nation with the next-shortest life expectancy for women, women can expect to live until age 82. Women see a life expectancy of 87 years in South Korea and Japan, 86 years in Switzerland and France and 85 years in Sweden and Australia.

Relatedly, the avoidable death rate for women in the U.S. is staggeringly high compared to other high-income nations, coming in at 279 avoidable deaths per 100,000 women. That’s compared to 182 avoidable deaths in Chile, the nation with the next-highest avoidable death rate. In South Korea, the nation with the lowest rate, there were only 81 avoidable deaths per 100,000 women.

American women were among the most likely to die from cardiovascular disease, but they were among the middle in terms of risk of death from breast or cervical cancer.

Still, health outcomes for American women are subpar, as measured by factors like taking multiple prescriptions, self-reported mental health needs and self-reported health-related social needs.

Women in the U.S. were the most likely to report taking multiple prescriptions for disease management. Black women in the U.S. were more likely than women of any race from any country to report taking multiple prescriptions.

Meanwhile, white women from the U.S. were the most likely to say they have mental health needs. Black and Hispanic women from the U.S. were the most likely to report social determinants of health needs, followed by women of any race from France and women of any race from the U.S.