By this point, you probably know that women carry most of the emotional burden and invisible labor of the household. But a new report has revealed just how much effort mothers are putting in when it comes to “health care” – managing the mental and physical health of their loved ones.
Specifically, healthcare platform Zocdoc’s third annual report, “What Patients Want,” found that women bear the brunt of healthcare planning for themselves, their children, and their families, including their parents, sometimes joined by their husbands and their husbands’ parents.
The report, which analyzed the company’s data and data from a national census survey of 1,000 U.S. adults, found that 52% of women manage someone else’s health care when finding a health care professional, scheduling an appointment, or coordinating care. And, even more surprising, 29% of women are in control of their health care. At least 3 other people.
In terms of appointment scheduling, 76% of all reservations booked for others were made by women, and 82% of reservations booked for men by others were booked by women.
For appointments for Generation A patients (children under 15 years of age), only 6% of appointments were made by men.
“I feel like I’m always trying to schedule something for myself and my two young children,” mom Zoe told ZocDoc about managing her family’s medical care. “There’s always another medical exam, sick visit, or school paperwork to take care of. I try to fit that in after school, between meetings, or at night when the kids are asleep, usually while I’m doing other things at the same time.”
Why do women face more “health maintenance” in the family? Like other parts of the mental burden, the job of caregiving often falls on our shoulders, especially when it comes to children and parents. Dig a little deeper and you’ll find that mothers often have better family leave, which leads them to take their babies to the doctor early in life, and that trend continues even after mothers return to work. And because mothers are often more knowledgeable about their child’s daily routine and needs (because they are the default parent), they book appointments because they know more about their child’s health and medical needs.
Additionally, men generally do not go to the doctor as much as women and are significantly less likely to undergo regular medical checkups and tests. A recent study by the Cleveland Clinic found that nearly 60% of men don’t see a doctor regularly and only seek medical attention for serious illnesses. Only one in five men gets a physical exam every year. Another study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that women were 33% more likely to see a doctor and had 100% better screening and preventive care. One hundred percent!!
Therefore, many of these men may literally never go to the doctor at all unless their loved one makes an appointment.
You can read the full Zocdoc report here.
