Gender differences in processing information for making self-assessments of health

Objective: This study proposes that women's greater inclusiveness of variou s sources of information when making self-assessed health (SAH) judgments a ccounts for the finding that SAH is a weaker predictor of mortality in wome n than in men. Methods: Data from a sample of 830 elderly residents of a re tirement community and a 5-year mortality follow-up study were used to exam ine the bases for women's and men's reports of negative affect (NA) and jud gments of SAH. The degree to which each health-related measure accounts for the SAM-mortality association in each gender group was examined. Results: The findings support two possible explanations for the lower accuracy of SA H as a predictor of mortality among women: 1) In both men and women, NA is associated with poorer SAH, but in men, NA is more closely linked to seriou s disease in conjunction with other negative life events, whereas in women, NA reflects a wider range of factors not specific to serious disease. 2) M en's SAM judgments reflect mainly serious, life-threatening disease leg, he art disease), whereas women's SAH judgments reflect both life-threatening a nd non-life-threatening disease leg, joint diseases). Conclusions: Women's SAH judgments and NAs are based on a wider range of health-related and non- health-related factors than are men's. This difference can explain gender d ifferences in the accuracy of SAH judgments and may be related to other doc umented differences in women's physical and mental health and illness behav ior. The findings emphasize the need to study the bases of NA and other sel f-evaluations separately for women and men.