Facts About Diseases/Conditions Affecting Women in the United States

Overview
• A baby girl born in the United States in 2007 could expect to live 80.4 years; that’s five years longer than a male baby, whose life expectancy was 75.4 years.
• In 2008, females comprised 50.7 percent of the 304 million people residing in the United States. In most age groups, women accounted for about half of the population, with the exception of people ages 65 and older. Within that age group, women represented 58 percent of the population. The growing diversity of the U.S. population is reflected in the racial and ethnic distribution of women across age groups. African-American and Hispanic women accounted for 9 percent and 6.8 percent of the female population ages 65 and older respectively, but they represented 14.1 percent and 22.4 percent of females under age 15.
• In 2008, 63.4 percent of non-Hispanic white women reported themselves to be in excellent or very good health, compared with only 48.1 percent of Hispanic women and 48.4 percent of non-Hispanic black women. Minority women are disproportionately affected by a number of diseases and health conditions, including asthma, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections.
• Among older adults, physical disabilities are more prevalent among women than men. Overall, 68.4 percent of women and 54.4 percent of men ages 65 and older reported having an activity limitation in 2008.

Arthritis
• The term arthritis encompasses more than 100 diseases and conditions that affect joints, the surrounding tissues, and other connective tissues. About 46 million Americans have some type of arthritis or related condition, and 60 percent of them are female.
• Arthritis-related disability is more prevalent among women than men at all ages: One in four women (24.4 percent) report having a disability, compared with one in five men (19.1 percent). In absolute numbers, since 1999, the number of women who attribute their disabilities to arthritis (6.4 million) has increased 22 percent.
• Fibromyalgia affects 3 million to 6 million Americans, up to 90 percent of whom are women. A recent study found that African-American women are more likely to suffer from fibromyalgia than their Caucasian counterparts.
• Juvenile arthritis is one of the most common childhood diseases in the United States. Approximately 294,000 children under age 18 are affected by pediatric arthritis and rheumatologic conditions. The ratio of girls to boys with polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis is estimated to be up to 4.5-to-1; among patients with oligoarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis, the ratio is 3-to-1.
• Osteoarthritis (OA), the most common form of arthritis, affects nearly 27 million Americans. Approximately 16 million OA sufferers are women, who usually develop the disorder after age 40.
• Osteoporosis is a major public health threat for an estimated 44 million Americans, or 55 percent of people age 50 and older. Today, 10 million people already have the disease, 80 percent of whom are women. Another 34 million people have low bone density, placing them at increased risk for osteoporosis and broken bones.
• Approximately 1.3 million American adults have rheumatoid arthritis (RA), with women outnumbering men 2.5-to-1. RA usually strikes women between the ages of 25 and 50. 
• The estimated cost of arthritis to the economy annually is some $128 billion.
• In 2005, osteoporosis-related fractures were responsible for an estimated $19 billion in costs. By 2025, experts predict those costs will rise to about $25.3 billion.

Autoimmune diseases
Autoimmunity is the underlying cause of more than 100 serious, chronic illnesses, and it targets women 75 percent of the time. Altogether, autoimmune diseases strike women three times more than men. The female-to-male ratios for autoimmune diseases are:

1. Systemic lupus erythematosus: 9-to-1
2. Antiphospholipid syndrome-secondary: 9-to-1
3. Graves’ disease: 7-to-1
4. Scleroderma: 3-to-1
5. Antiphospholipid syndrome-primary: 2-to-1
6. Autoimmune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP): 2-to-1
7. Multiple sclerosis: 2-to-1
8. Myasthenia gravis: 2-to-1

Here are other facts and figures about autoimmune disease:
• Of the 50 million Americans living with autoimmunity, 30 million are women. Autoimmune diseases represent the fourth-largest cause of disability among women in the United States.
• Dermatomyositis, an uncommon inflammatory disease marked by muscle weakness and a distinctive skin rash, may occur at any age, but it mostly affects adults in their late 40s to early 60s or children between the ages of 5 and 15. The condition affects more women than men.
• As many as 3 million Americans have Type 1 diabetes. It is more common in women than men.
• Anyone can get lupus, an inflammatory disease that may affect many parts of the body, but nine out of 10 people who have lupus are women. African-American women are three times more likely to get lupus than white women. Lupus is also more common in Hispanic/Latina, Asian, and Native American women. African Americans and Hispanics/Latinos tend to get lupus at a younger age and have more symptoms, including kidney problems. Lupus also tends to be more severe in these ethnic groups. For example, African Americans with lupus have more problems with seizures and strokes. Hispanic/Latino patients have more heart problems.
• Some 400,000 Americans have multiple sclerosis (MS), which strikes at least two to three times as many women as men. Each week, about 200 people are newly diagnosed with MS, usually between the ages of 20 and 50.
• Most people who develop polymyalgia rheumatica, an inflammatory disorder that causes muscle pain and stiffness, are older than 65. It rarely affects people younger than 50. Women are about two times more likely to develop the disorder.
• Raynaud’s disease, a condition that causes some areas of the body to feel numb and cool in response to cold temperatures or stress, affects women more than men. Although anyone can develop the condition, primary Raynaud’s often begins between the ages of 15 and 30. About one-third of people with primary Raynaud’s have a first-degree relative -- a parent, sibling or child -- with the disorder.
• Scleroderma, a group of rare, progressive diseases that causes hardening and tightening of the skin and connective tissues, occurs at least four times as often in women as it does in men and usually occurs between the ages of 30 and 50. Systemic scleroderma is more common in African-Americans than it is in Americans of European descent, and those African-Americans are more likely to develop severe lung complications.
• The annual direct healthcare costs for autoimmune diseases are estimated to be some $100 billion.

Cancer
• Women have a lifetime risk of a little more than 1 in 3 of developing cancer. An estimated 739,940 women were diagnosed with some form of cancer in 2010, and an estimated 270,290 died from cancer that year.
• An estimated 207,090 women were diagnosed with invasive breast cancer last year. It is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women, excluding cancers of the skin. After continuously increasing from 1994-1999, female breast cancer incidence rates decreased by 2 percent per year from 1999-2006. An estimated 39,840 women died from it in 2010.
• An estimated 12,200 new cases of invasive cervical cancer were diagnosed in 2010. Incidence rates have decreased over the past several decades in both white and African-American women. An estimated 4,210 women died from cervical cancer last year.
• An estimated 43,470 new cases of endometrial cancer (cancer of the uterine corpus) were diagnosed in 2010, and an estimated 7,950 women died from it.
• Women accounted for 105,770 of the 222,520 new cases of lung cancer diagnosed in 2010. While the incidence rate is declining significantly in men (from a high of 102.1 cases per 100,000 in 1984 to 71.3 in 2006), in women the rate is approaching a plateau after a long period of increase. Still, lung cancer accounts for the most cancer-related deaths in both men and women. Since 1987, more women have died each year from lung cancer than from breast cancer. Of the estimated 157,300 lung cancer deaths in 2010, 71,080 were in women and 86,220 were in men.
• An estimated 21,880 new cases of ovarian cancer were diagnosed in 2010. It accounts for about 3 percent of all cancers among women and ranks second among gynecologic cancers, following uterine cancer. An estimated 13,850 women died from ovarian cancer in 2010.
• The estimated overall costs for cancer in 2010 were $263.8 billion.

Eye disorders

• Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of severe vision loss in adults over age 50. An estimated 1.8 million people have AMD and another 7.3 million are at substantial risk for vision loss from AMD. Caucasians are at higher risk for developing AMD than other races, and women develop AMD at an earlier age than men.
• Nearly 5 million Americans age 50 and older are estimated to have dry eyes. Of these, more than 3 million are women and more than 1.5 million are men. Tens of millions more have less severe symptoms. Dry eye is more common after menopause.
• Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness in the world. More than 4 million Americans have glaucoma, but only half of them know they have it. Some 120,000 are blind from glaucoma, accounting for up to 12 percent of all cases of blindness in this country. Glaucoma is considered an age-related disease. Because women live, on average, several years longer than men do in the United States, many more women than men live long enough to develop glaucoma.
• Glaucoma is estimated to cost the U.S. government more than $1.5 billion annually in Social Security benefits, lost income tax revenues, and health care expenditures.

Gastrointestinal disorders

• In the United States, 2.1 million people are affected by irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Women with IBS represent more than 70 percent of IBS sufferers. IBS is responsible for more time lost from school and work than any medical problem—other than the common cold.16 In 2007, physicians reported that digestive disorders were the primary diagnosis in 2.9 percent of all visits made by women ages 18 and older, accounting for more than 14 million physician visits. IBS was the primary diagnosis in 6.6 percent of visits for digestive disorders.
• The aggregate cost of irritable bowel syndrome in the United States has been estimated at $30 billion.

Heart disease and stroke

• Only 13 percent of women view heart disease as a health threat, even though it’s the number one killer of women. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) kills about one woman per minute. CVD claims more lives than the next four most common causes of death combined. One in three adult females and males in the United States suffers from a form of CVD.
• Coronary heart disease is the leading killer of women over age 25. Sixty-four percent of women who died suddenly of coronary heart disease had no previous symptoms. Heart disease rates in post-menopausal women are two to three times higher than in pre-menopausal women of the same age.
• High blood pressure is a risk factor for a number of conditions, including heart disease and stroke. From 2005–2008, 16.7 percent of adults were identified with high blood pressure. Among adults ages 65 and older, women are more likely than men to have high blood pressure (41.4 percent versus 32.3 percent, respectively), while men ages 20–44 are more likely than women to have high blood pressure (10.0 versus 3.1 percent, respectively).
• High blood pressure is more prevalent among non-Hispanic Black women than women of other races. From 2005–2008, 21.3 percent of non-Hispanic Black women were found to have high blood pressure, compared to 16.3 percent of non-Hispanic White, 10.6 percent of Mexican-American, and 12.4 percent of other Hispanic women.
• Stroke is the third leading cause of death for American women and a chief cause of serious, long-term disability. Stroke kills more women than men. In 2003, females represented 61 percent of stroke deaths.

Kidney/urologic disorders

• Interstitial cystitis (IC)—also called painful bladder syndrome (PBS)—is nine times more common in women than in men: of the estimated 1.3 million Americans with IC, more than 1 million are women.
• An estimated one-third of people with lupus will develop lupus nephritis, a potentially serious symptom of lupus. Lupus nephritis most often develops within the first five years after the symptoms of lupus start, and usually affects people between the ages of 20 and 40. It is estimated that as many as 40 percent of all people with lupus, and as many as two-thirds of all children with lupus, will develop kidney complications that require medical evaluation and treatment.
• About 17 percent of women and 16 percent of men over age 18 have overactive bladder (OAB), and an estimated 12.2 million adults have urge incontinence. One in five adults over age 40 is affected by OAB or recurrent symptoms of urgency and frequency. OAB and urge incontinence occur about twice as frequently in women as in men and become more prevalent with advanced aging. Women with OAB are significantly more likely to suffer from other health disorders, such as hypertension, obesity and arthritis, than women without OAB. An estimated 17 million community-dwelling adults in the United States have daily urge incontinence and a further 33 million suffer from the overlapping condition OAB.
• Urinary incontinence (UI) is one of the most prevalent chronic diseases in the United States and is generally more common among women than men. From 2005–2008, 40.7 percent of women and 12.5 percent of men ages 20 and older reported that they ever had urinary leakage.
• Urinary tract infections (UTIs) account for about 8.3 million doctor visits annually. Women are especially prone to UTIs—one woman in five develops a UTI during her lifetime.
• The 1995 societal cost of UI for individuals age 65 and older was $26.3 billion, or $3,565 per individual age 65 and older with UI. Most of the total cost is associated with direct treatment, such as the cost of diagnostic testing and medication, and nearly half the costs of UI are for medical services paid by Medicare. The cost of OAB is $12.6 billion (in 2000 dollars). The cost of caring for UI and OAB nursing facility patients is an estimated $5.3 billion.
• In 2000, $3.5 billion was spent on the evaluation and treatment of UTIs.

Lung/respiratory disorders

• Females traditionally have consistently higher rates of asthma than have males. In 2008, females were about 10.5 percent more likely than males to ever have been diagnosed with asthma. That year, 10.4 million males and 12.9 million females had asthma. The prevalence rate in females (84.6 per 1,000 people) was 19 percent greater than the rate in males (71.1 per 1,000 people) overall.
• Females tend to have consistently higher asthma attack prevalence rates than males. In 2008, 7.3 million females had an asthma attack compared to 5.4 million males.
• In 2006, 3,613 people died of asthma, and 64 percent of them were women. The female death rate was 44 percent greater than the male death rate. The age-adjusted death rate for asthma in the African-American population (2.7 per 100,000) was three times higher than the rate in the white population (0.9 per 100,000). African-American women had the highest mortality rate due to asthma in 2006 (2.8 per 100,000).
• In 2010, the direct health care costs for asthma were $15.6 billion; indirect costs (lost productivity) added another $5.1 billion for a total of $20.7 billion. Prescription drugs represented the largest single direct medical expenditure at $5.6 billion.
• Emphysema and chronic bronchitis are the most important conditions that compose chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and they frequently coexist. In 2008, 12.1 million U.S. adults ages18 and older were estimated to have COPD. Women were more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with chronic bronchitis as men. In 2008, 3.1 million men were diagnosed with chronic bronchitis compared to 6.7 million women. Women have had lower emphysema prevalence rates than men for every year since 1983. However, in 2008 the rates converged and switched, although the difference between them was not statistically significant. In 2008, almost 1.8 million men had emphysema, compared to more than 2.0 million women. From 1997 to 2008, the prevalence rate of emphysema among men decreased by 19.3 percent, while the rate among women increased by 32.1 percent.
• In 2006, 120,970 people died of COPD, compared to 127,049 in 2005; 52.1 percent of those deaths were in women. That was the seventh consecutive year in which the number of deaths due to COPD was higher among women than men.
• The national projected annual cost for COPD in 2010 was $49.9 billion.
• The number of deaths due to pneumonia and influenza has been higher among females since the mid-1980s. However, females have age-adjusted death rates close to 30 percent lower than those in men because the U.S. female population is larger than the male population. In 2006, the age-adjusted death rates for females and males were 15.5 and 21.2 per 100,000, respectively.
• An estimated 589,000 hospital discharges in males and 643,000 discharges in females were attributed to pneumonia in 2006. That year, an estimated 12,000 discharges in males and 25,000 discharges in females were attributed to influenza.
• Together, pneumonia and influenza cost the U.S. economy $40.2 billion in 2005.

Neurologic disorders

• Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia, accounting for an estimated 60 percent to 80 percent of cases. More women than men have Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. Almost two-thirds of all Americans living with Alzheimer’s are women. Of the 5.2 million people over age 65 with Alzheimer’s in the United States, 3.4 million are women and 1.8 million are men. An estimated 16 percent of women ages 71 and older have Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia compared with 11 percent of men. The fact that more older women than men have Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia is primarily due to women living longer on average than men.
• Of the estimated 28 million migraine sufferers, 75 percent, or about 21 million, are women. More than 157 million workdays are lost each year due to migraines. Missed work or reduced productivity due to migraines costs the economy $13 billion annually.
• For people with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, aggregate payments for health care, long-term care, and hospice are projected to increase from $183 billion in 2011 to $1.1 trillion in 2050 (in 2011 dollars). Medicare and Medicaid cover about 70 percent of the costs of care.

Obstetric/gynecologic conditions

• An estimated 21.2 million women ages 14–49 have bacterial vaginosis (BV), the most common cause of vaginal symptoms in women. The BV prevalence rate for African-American women is 51 percent, for Mexican-American women 32 percent, and for white women 23 percent.
• Some 62 million American women are in their childbearing years (15-44), and 62 percent of them are using a contraceptive method. Almost one-third (31 percent) of those women do not need a contraceptive because they are infertile; pregnant, postpartum, or trying to become pregnant; have never had intercourse; or are not sexually active. Among the 43 million fertile, sexually active women who do not want to become pregnant, 89 percent are practicing contraception. For women younger than age 30, birth control pills are the leading method. Among women ages 30 and older, more rely on sterilization.
• Approximately 20 million Americans are currently infected with human papillomavirus (HPV). Another 6 million people become newly infected each year. HPV is so common that at least 50 percent of sexually active men and women get it at some point in their lives. Some types of HPV cause genital warts, which about 1 percent of sexually active U.S. adults have at any one time. Other types of HPV cause cervical cancer, which strikes about 12,000 women annually in this country.

Psychiatric disorders

• The U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment estimates that as many as 6.8 million people in the United States have dementia, and at least 1.8 million of those are severely affected. Vascular dementia is the second most common cause of dementia, after Alzheimer’s disease. It accounts for up to 20 percent of all dementias and is caused by brain damage from cerebrovascular or cardiovascular problems—usually strokes. The incidence of vascular dementia increases with advancing age and is similar in men and women.26 A recent study found that women over age 90 are significantly more likely to have dementia than men of the same age. It found that the likelihood of having dementia doubled every five years in women after reaching 90, but not in men.
• One in four women will experience severe depression at some point in life. Depression affects twice as many women as men, regardless of racial and ethnic background or income, and it is the number one cause of disability in women. In general, married women experience depression more than single women do, and depression is common among young mothers who stay at home full-time with small children. Depression can put women at risk of suicide. While more men than women die from suicide, women attempt suicide about twice as often as men do. Only about one-fifth of all women who suffer from depression seek treatment.
• Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) affects about 6.8 million adult Americans and about twice as many women as men. The disorder comes on gradually and can begin across the life cycle, though the risk is highest between childhood and middle age.
• Approximately 1 in 23 people suffer from phobias (social, agoraphobic, and specific). That’s nearly 4.25 percent of the population. Some 5.2 million Americans (ages 18 to 54) have social phobia. Approximately 3.2 million Americans have agoraphobia. Almost 6.2 million U.S. citizens have some sort of specific phobia. Roughly twice as many women as men suffer from specific phobia, while about equal numbers of women and men have social phobia.
• An estimated 5 million people in the United States are afflicted with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) every year. About 8 percent of men who experienced traumatic events in their lives may suffer from PTSD, while 20 percent of women exposed to traumatic events are likely to be afflicted with PTSD.

Other

• More than 3 million people in the United States have anemia. Women and people with chronic diseases are at greatest risk. Some 20 percent of pregnant women in this country have anemia, and 12 percent of women ages 12-49 are iron deficient.
• Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is estimated to affect between 1 million and 4 million people in the United States; however, an estimated 80 percent of all CFS patients have not yet been diagnosed. Only about half of CFS patients have sought medical attention and fewer than one in five has been diagnosed and treated. CFS occurs most frequently in women ages 40-60, but it affects all races, sexes, and age groups, and can be as disabling as multiple sclerosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. One-fourth of those affected by CFS are either unemployed or on disability assistance.
• Up to 24 million people of all ages and genders suffer from an eating disorder (anorexia, bulimia, and binge-eating disorder) in the United States. Women are much more likely than men to develop an eating disorder. Only an estimated 5 percent to 15 percent of people with anorexia or bulimia are male. Of those who have eating disorders, 95 percent are between the ages of 12 and 25.
• Anorexia is the third most common chronic illness among adolescents. An estimated 0.5 percent to 3.7 percent of women suffer from anorexia nervosa in their lifetime. Research suggests that about 1 percent of female adolescents have anorexia. About 50 percent of people who have had anorexia develop bulimia or bulimic patterns. Twenty percent of people suffering from anorexia will prematurely die from complications related to their eating disorder, including suicide and heart problems. The mortality rate associated with anorexia nervosa is 12 times higher than the death rate associated with all causes of death for females 15-24 years old. The crude mortality rate for anorexia nervosa is 4 percent.
• Severe sepsis is reported in 2.26 cases per 100 hospital discharges and one in five admissions to the intensive care unit (ICU). Of the more than 750,000 severe sepsis cases each year in the United States, an estimated 215,000 (28.6%) patients die. Mortality associated with severe sepsis has been reported as high as 50 percent.
• Septicemia, which is a state of sepsis, killed 18,989 females and 15,839 males in 2007.24 Severe sepsis accounts for an estimated 40 percent of all ICU expenditures, totaling $16.7 billion.