Women live longer than men, but in poor health
A new global study published in The Lancet Public Health (May) says that men are at a higher risk of premature death than women. But though women live longer, they tend to spend more of their lifetime in poor health.
Researchers used data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021, focusing on 20 major causes of disease burden in over 200 countries. Non-fatal conditions that cause illness and disability, such as musculoskeletal problems, mental health issues and headache disorders, particularly affect women, researchers found. At the same time, men are disproportionally affected by conditions that cause premature death, such as cardiovascular diseases, respiratory and liver afflictions, Covid-19 and road injuries.
“Females have longer lives but live more years in poor health, with limited progress made in reducing the burden of conditions leading to illness and disability. There’s urgent need for greater attention to non-fatal consequences that limit women’s physical and mental function, especially at older ages. Similarly, males are experiencing a much higher and growing burden of disease with fatal consequences,” says Luisa Sorio Flor, researcher at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at University of Washington (USA).
Moderate alcohol consumption affects prenatal outcomes
Even low to moderate alcohol consumption by pregnant women contributes to subtle changes in their babies’ prenatal development, including lower birth length and shorter duration of gestation, says a study published in Alcohol Clinical & Experimental Research (April). University of New Mexico (UNM) researchers led by Ludmila Bakhirev, assistant dean for Clinical and Translational Research in the UNM College of Pharmacy, also reported some sex-related differences in the effects of alcohol consumption during pregnancy on developing babies.
“This study, as well as prior preclinical studies, show that even moderate alcohol use might have negative effects. In exploratory analyses, the adverse effect on gestational age was more pronounced in male infants, and for birth length it actually was stronger in females,” says Bakhireva. The study analyzed three studies conducted at UNM over the course of ten years that followed 281 participants, most of them in the second trimester of their pregnancies and then followed their children, for some time afterward.
78 percent employees in India experience job burnout
Nearly 78 percent of employees in India experience some degree of job burnout, leading to physical and emotional exhaustion, according to a ten-nation study conducted by the UKG Workforce Institute based in Lowell, Massachusetts and Weston, Florida (USA).
The study which surveyed over 4,000 employees in ten countries, including India, found that globally, managers have a major impact on employees’ productivity and engagement. They create great places to work by building trust, fostering open communication, and caring for employees as individuals. In India, 72 percent said their manager’s support directly motivates them to go above and beyond in the workplace.
“There is an emerging culture of promoting trust, transparency, and accountability in workplaces across the world, and managers are the major driving force behind this shift. The study is reflective of this workplace reality. It also says that 91 percent employees in India are well-informed by their managers on leadership decisions,” says Sumeet Doshi, country manager at UKG, India.
Covid-19 vaccine reduces disease impact
Despite the global success of Covid-19 vaccination campaigns, there are still apprehensions around the continued spread of this disease even in vaccinated individuals. Therefore, researchers at the Oxford Vaccine Group (OVG) conducted an extensive investigation into the human immune response to Covid-19 in vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. Employing contemporary ‘big-data’ analyses, the researchers found that harmful inflammatory reaction to Covid-19 is less severe in those who have been vaccinated, when compared with those who haven’t.
“The results of our research highlight the CoV-19 vaccine’s ability to modulate the harmful impact of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and therefore to reduce the severity of illness. The implications of these findings are far-reaching, offering evidence that is fundamental to future vaccine development and pandemic mitigation strategies,” says Prof. Daniel O’Connor, head of bioinformatics at the Oxford Vaccine Group.