506 Assignment 09 CT (new)

Comparison of Risk Factors Between Males and Females

Introduction

Diseases and other health conditions have been the leading cause of mortality throughout the world for many years. Furthermore, there are differences in the rates at which men and females get affected by different risk factors. From a general view, men seem to be vulnerable to risk factors when compared to females. Some of the known risk factors include hygiene, sanitation, unsafe water, alcohol consumption, smoking, high blood pressure, unsafe sex, and underweight. Using the Framingham heart study data, this report shall compare the available information to make conclusions between men and female is prone to risk factors using descriptive statistics. The conditions used to make analysis include age, diabetes, body mass index (BMI), total serum cholesterol, current smoker, use of hypertensive medication, diastolic blood pressure, systolic blood persevere, and age. This report postulates the Null Hypothesis) as H0 the risk factors for heart disease listed as patient characteristics are not related to if the patient is male or female in the Framingham Heart Study. The alternative H1, on the other hand, states that the risk factors for heart disease listed as patient characteristics are related to if the patient is male or female in the Framingham Heart Study.

Discussion

Table one below compares the descriptive statistics between males and females based on age, total serum cholesterol, and systolic blood pressure. The mean of females with total serum cholesterol is higher than of men with a value of 246.53 and 234.28, respectively. Their standard deviation is 46.85 for females and that of males if 42.41. Also, the range of females is 531, and that of males is 583 though the total number of females is higher than that of males. The average age of females undergoing medication is 55.02, while that of males is 54.49. Both genders have a standard deviation that is close to each other in terms of age, which is 9.5. Concerning systolic blood pressure, an average of 137.28 belongs to females compared to only 135.07 males. The standard deviation for females under these conditions is 24.48, while that of males is 20.3. From the states mentioned above, it can be concluded that generally, there are more females with total cholesterol serum and systolic blood pressure compared to men. The high levels of cholesterol in women can be attributed to a woman's increase in LDL cholesterol levels after menopause (Link et al., 2015). Besides, since their average age is higher than that of men, there is the risk of an increase in cholesterol levels, which can also be compounded by family history. The increase in age also fuels systolic blood pressure. From the conclusions, the null hypothesis should be rejected for the alternative hypothesis.

Table 1

Table 2 below gives a summary of the statistics of diastolic blood pressure and current smoker. The mean for the current smoker of males is 0.51, while that of females is 0.36; their standard deviation is 0.49 and 0.48, respectively. It can be concluded that males have a higher risk of current smoking habits than females from the data provided. Smoking is associated with teenage age. Most teens start smoking due to peer pressure or when they see their parents smoking. On its part, smoking has dire consequences since it leads to dangerous conditions like high blood pressure and cancer. Similarly, the mean for diastolic blood pressure is 83.69 for males and 82.54 for females. Due to smoking and age, males are prone to diastolic blood pressure compared to females (Gale et al., 2016). Again, the null hypothesis should be rejected in this case in favor of the alternative.

Table 2

From table 3, the means for body mass index and diabetes are 26.20 and 25.62 for males and females, respectively. Their standard deviation is 3.4 and 4.5, respectively. From the data, males seem to have a higher tendency of more body mass index compared to females. However, the deviation is very small, which can be argued that they have almost equal BMI. Males use fewer calories as they grow old since they do not spend much time doing house chores, and most of them do not do physical exercises. Concerning diabetes, the means for males and females are 0.05 and 0.04, respectively. The standard deviation values are 0.21 and 0.20, respectively. It is not clear which factors are behind diabetes development, but as it can be deduced from the table below, both males and females have equal chances of being exposed to the risk factors of diabetes. Genes and other environmental factors can be the leading causes of diabetes that do not depend on a selected gender (Pociot & Lernmark, 2016). Therefore, the null hypothesis should be accepted in this case.

Table 3

Finally, table 4 gives a statistical analysis of mg/Dl and the use of anti-hypersensitive medication. The means for glucose toward females and males respectively are 83.76 and 84.5, respectively. Their standard deviation is 24.38 and 25.73 correspondingly. Males have a slightly higher level of glucose compared to that of females. This condition can be associated with high levels of stress males undergo compared to females (Kautzky-Willer, Harreiter & Pacini, 2016). Concerning the use of anti-hypersensitive medication, the means for males is 0.73, and that of females 0.75. The respective standard deviation is 0.44 and 0.43. Females seem to use more these drugs than males. Most females tend to develop higher sensitivity than males due to the higher strength of their immune system. Hence, the null hypothesis should be rejected.

Table 4

Conclusion

From the data analyzed above, the risk factors associated with the various conditions can be related or not to a different gender. For instance, both genders have equal chances of contracting diabetes and body mass index. There are instances where males have higher risk factors, and others where females do. Males are exposed to risk factors due to smoking and the accumulation of cholesterol since they do not do heavy work as they grow older. On the other hand, females get exposed to risk factors due to advanced age and menopause.

References

Gale, C. R., Hagenaars, S. P., Davies, G., Hill, W. D., Liewald, D. C., Cullen, B., ... & Smith, D. J. (2016). Pleiotropy between neuroticism and physical and mental health: findings from 108 038 men and women in UK Biobank. Translational psychiatry, 6(4), e791.

Link, J. C., Chen, X., Prien, C., Borja, M. S., Hammerson, B., Oda, M. N., ... & Reue, K. (2015). Increased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels in mice with XX versus XY sex chromosomes. Arteriosclerosis, thrombosis, and vascular biology, 35(8), 1778-1786.

Pociot, F., & Lernmark, Å. (2016). Genetic risk factors for type 1 diabetes. The Lancet, 387(10035), 2331-2339.