the most prominent biological explanations for gender differences in health and mortality are hormonal autoimmune greater susceptibility of men to infections and genetic waldron crimmis and finch women are found to be more interested in health green and pope to be more likely to report symptoms to clinicians kroenke and spitzer and to show higher healthcare utilisation than men do bertakis et al smoking prevalence among men is higher than among women in all oecd countries except in sweden and canada rates for men and women are equal or nearly equal in denmark iceland norway and the united kingdom