The Gender Gap in Handling Stress and Diabetes
Differences in coping strategies
Another reason behind the differences in behaviors is the consistent maintenance of a healthy lifestyle. While both genders show signs of a struggle with this, the dissimilarities relate to distinct sets of habits. On the one hand, men, according to this study, lean more toward drinking or smoking to deal with stress, but women will turn more towards food for comfort. As a matter of fact, according to a study in Finland that involved 5000 participants, obesity in women was found to be directly related to stress eating as opposed to the male subjects. Regardless of coping mechanisms, looking to food or alcohol as a means of dealing with such a life-altering diagnosis only serves to make diabetes management more difficult.
