social
and behavioral causes of sex differences
in health and mortality
I am currently analyzing
trends in sex differences in human mortality and health-related
behavior in the United States, Japan and three Western European
countries. Several researchers have hypothesized that, as male
and female roles have become more similar, sex differences in
mortality and health-related behavior have decreased and will
eventually disappear. However, my analyses show varied trends
in sex differences for different causes of death and different
types of behavior.
My current
focus is on trends in sex differences in accidents mortality.
Although sex differences have decreased for motor
vehicle accidents and amount of driving, many other types
of accidents and accident-related behavior show stable or increasing
sex differences. My research investigates the contributions
to these trends of additional factors such as increasing
drug overdose deaths, which affects males more, and certain
improvements
in health care which have resulted in greater reductions
in mortality for females.
I am also carrying out research to
assess the contribution
of a Penn undergraduate education to science literacy.
selected
publications
Waldron, I. 2003. Mortality Differentials, by Sex. In P.
Demeny and G. McNicoll, eds., The Encyclopedia of Population. (Macmillan
Reference USA, Farmington Hills, MI) (In Press).
Waldron, I. 2002.
Trends in gender differences in coronary heart disease mortality
-- Relationships to trends in health-related
behavior and changing gender roles. In G. Weidner, S. M. Kopp,
and M. Kristenson, eds., Heart Disease: Environment, Stress and
Gender, NATO Science Series, Series I: Life and Behavioural Sciences,
Vol. 327, IOS Press) pp. 80-98.
Waldron, I. 2002. Concept Questions:
A Useful Teaching Strategy for Biology Lectures. In B. Wilbur
and C. Johnson, eds., Great
Ideas in Teaching Biology, vol. 1. (Benjamin Cummings, San Francisco,
CA) p. 8.
Waldron, I. 2000. Trends in gender differences
in mortality – Relationships
to changing gender differences in behaviour and other causal
factors. In E. Annandale and K. Hunt, eds., Gender Inequalities
in Health.
(Open University Press, Buckingham, U K) pp. 150-181.
Shin, D.,
Hong, L., and Waldron, I. 1999. Possible causes
of socioeconomic and ethnic differences in seat belt use among
high
school students.
Accident Analaysis and Prevention 31:485-496.
Waldron, I. 1998.
Factors determining the sex ratio at birth. In United Nations,
Too Young to Die: Genes or Gender?. (U.N.,
N.Y.)
pp 53-63.
Waldron, I. 1998. Sex differences in infant
and early child mortality: Major causes of death and possible
biological
causes. In United
Nations, Too Young to Die: Genes or Gender?. (U.N., N.Y.) pp
64-83.
Lye, D. and Waldron, I. 1998. Relationships
of substance use to attitudes toward gender roles, family and
cohabitation.
Journal
of Substance Abuse 10:185-195.
Waldron, I., Weiss, C. C., and
Hughes, M.E. 1998. Interacting effects of multiple roles on women’s
health. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 39:216-236.
Lye,
D. and Waldron, I. 1997. Attitudes toward cohabitation,
family and gender roles: Relationships to values and political
ideology.
Sociological Perspectives 40:199-225.
Waldron, I., Weiss, C.,
and Hughes, M.E. 1997. Marital status
effects on health – Are there differences between never
married women and divorced and separated women? Social Science
and Medicine 45:1387-1397.
Waldron, I. 1997. Changing gender
roles and gender differences in health behavior. In D.S. Gochman,
ed., Handbook of Health
Behavior Research, Vol. 1. (Plenum Press, New York) pp 303-328.
Waldron,
I., Hughes, M. E. and Brooks, T. L. 1996. Marriage protection
and marriage selection - Prospective evidence for reciprocal
effects of marital status and health. Soc. Sci. Med. 43:113-123.
Waldron,
I. 1995. Contributions of biological and behavioural
factors to changing sex differences in ischemic heart disease
mortality.
In A. Lopez, G. Caselli, and T. Valkonen, Eds., Adult Mortality
in Developed Countries: From Description to Explanation. (Clarendon
Press, Oxford) pp. 161-178.
Waldron, I. 1995. Contributions of
changing gender differences
in behavior and social roles to changing gender differences in
mortality. In D. Sabo and D. Gordon, Eds., Men’s Health
and Illness: Gender, Power and the Body (Sage Publications, Thousand
Oaks, CA) pp. 22-45.
People