New research has highlighted the potential gender gap in stress, with women reporting higher stress from life events such as death of a loved one, illness, losing their smartphone and Brexit.
The study, based on YouGov research commissioned by The Physiological Society, asked over 2000 people to rate how stressful they found key life events—and for every event, women were more stressed than men. The biggest difference was in the stress caused by the threat of terrorism and the smallest for the arrival of the first child.
The study builds on the famous stress work of Holmes and Rahe in 1967 to determine how different life events affect people.
The Physiological Society is using the study to raise awareness of the effect of stress on the body’s function. During stress, the body prepares for action by releasing hormones into the blood stream, which affects the heart as well as digestive and immune systems. Frequent and prolonged stress can cause long term physiological problems in the body. With women more likely to report feeling stressed than men, this could have a very real impact on their health.
– The Physiological Society
Read more: Stress of major life events impacts women more than men, shows poll of 2,000 people
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