2023-11-23 15:32:50
This is indicated by data from the United States. Factors related to the pandemic such as economic difficulties, depression and stress contributed to lowering the resilience of males
According to a study by the University of California and Harvard published in Jama Internal Medicine, women, at least in the USA, have had further help from the Covid pandemic which has given them almost six years of life longer than men. In 2021, their life expectancy was in fact 79.3 years, while in men it was 73.5, with a gap of 5.8 years, the largest difference ever recorded since 1996. various factors, however, always linked to the pandemic such as economic difficulties, depression, stress, etc. which have led men, above all, to abuse drugs and opioids, as well as alcohol, resulting in deaths from overdoses or hepatitis, road accidents or accidents at work, and even suicides.
Brain fog
In his book Gli Anni Possibili, the well-known geriatrician Marco Trabucchi said that it is more important to give life to years rather than years to life, but those unexpectedly gained by women with Covid could prove to be a Pyrrhic victory. According to another study on 6,245,282 elderly people just published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease by researchers from Bethesda and Cleveland Universities directed by Rong Xu, a new side effect of the infection has emerged which could prove to be a long-term consequence of the infection. Today many conditions are included in the so-called Long-Covid, which affects at least a third of those infected in whom, despite negative tests, symptoms such as brain fog, asthenia, chronic fatigue, fever, hypotrophy and pain persist for up to a year after infection muscle mass, deterioration in perceived health, loss of appetite, etc. What the American researchers discovered seems to confirm previous studies according to which the infection would increase the risk of developing cognitive impairment within a year of infection, particularly in women over 85.
Confirmations needed
The results require confirmation, but they suggest that another could be added to the long list of neurological effects induced by Covid, from headache to Guillain Barr syndrome, capable of nullifying the life gain found in the study we started with. The study by Rong Xu and collaborators, however, is retrospective – comments the President of the Italian Society of Neurology Alessandro Padovani of the University of Brescia – and therefore not precise enough from a clinical point of view because the Bethesda and Cleveland researchers had to recover the data of the immense plethora of patients evaluated by the computerized archives of the US health system and not all of them came from the same dataset, so that the evaluation criteria are not always superimposable with regards to the risk indices, the long-term observation period, the diagnosis criteria differential with other types of dementia, etc. Further confirmatory studies will be needed.
The hope is that women can enjoy these gifted years in good health also because today the means to do so exist.
More health-conscious women
The value of this study, however, is not to underestimate any memory alterations after the Covid infection and if they occur, contact your family doctor for any indication for a visit to the neurologist or geriatrician. According to David Cutler of Harvard University in Cambridge, author of a vast survey on the post-covid situation in the USA, the chances in their favor are still many: Women tend to have healthier behaviors than men – says Cutler – and they are committed more in health-seeking behaviors. They often visit health professionals regularly, follow medical advice more and willingly participate in prevention health campaigns. It is their proactive approach to health that contributes to the early diagnosis of diseases and better management of pre-pathological conditions, thus avoiding chronic diseases and premature deaths.
Corriere della Sera also on Whatsapp. It’s enough click here to subscribe to the channel and always be updated.
November 23, 2023 (modified November 23, 2023 | 2.32pm)
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
#Covid #gap #life #expectancy #women #men #increased #time.news