Sex Differences in Illness Behavior: Care Seeking Among Cancer Patients

One of the puzzling findings of medical sociology has been that, although men generally die earlier than women, women tend to be sick more frequently than men are. Whether this difference in sickness results from true disease or from differences in illness behavior has been a topic of considerable debate. This study is designed to shed some light on the illness behavior of men and women. The responses of men and women to cancer onset are compared. The results indicate that, for a certain set of symptoms, the association between sex and an important facet of illness behavior is slight.