Report: Health disparities exist between sexes

CAMBRIDGE. The city’s public health department released a report yesterday that some health outcomes were vastly different between men and women.

Health officials found the overall death rate for males in Cambridge was 34 percent higher than for females. Men also had higher rates of death from heart disease and cancer, as well as a greater chance of becoming infected with HIV/AIDS, according to the report.

The report also found men that while men and women die from stroke and diabetes at roughly the same rate, men are hospitalized for those conditions at a higher rate.

“This is the most comprehensive report on health disparities ever produced by the public health department,” Dennis D. Keefe, chief executive officer of Cambridge Health Alliance and the city’s public health commissioner, said in a statement.

Officials also found some discrepancies between men of different races. For instance, the death rate of black males in Cambridge is nine times higher than for whites.