Gender differences in the acquisition of prescribed drugs: an epidemiological study.

It is often assumed that women received more prescribed drugs because they have different attitudes towards illness and medical care, higher anxiety and more time to visit physicians, or because physicians are biased. This study examines an alternative explanation, that is, much of the excess is associated with women's reproductive role. The study involved a detailed audit of the medical and pharmacy records of 862 men and women. Results showed that women received more prescribed drugs during the 2-year study period. However, the differences between men and women were not the same for all age groups. As expected, the differences were most apparent during the peak child-bearing years. Further analysis showed that the gender differences were virtually eliminated after excluding women with female-specific diagnoses and excluding the drug categories used to prevent or treat female-specific conditions. Previous studies based on gross measures of self-reported drug use seem to have underestimated the importance of factors that relate to women's reproductive role.