Canada’s workforce increasingly reflects the unique health challenges faced by its female population.
Between 2018 and 2023, women represented a little more than half of the total claimants and spend in Express Scripts Canada’s drug claims data, according to Farah Belayadi, the organization’s senior manager of clinical services and health technology database, during Benefits Canada’s 2024 Face to Face Drug Plan Management Forum.
Women not only exhibit different claiming patterns compared to men, she said, they also experience unique impacts throughout their lives. These differences can influence productivity, absenteeism and even disability, as women’s health needs evolve through their life stages.
Within Express Scripts Canada’s data, childhood and adolescence (birth to 17 years) accounted for 14 per cent of female claimants, while young adulthood (18 to 24 years) comprised about eight per cent. The family and career-building years (25 to 44 years) represented 32 per cent of claimants, while late adulthood (45 to 60 years) made up 34 per cent.
Read coverage of Benefits Canada‘s 2024 Women’s Health Roundtable.
“Women are disproportionately affected by several conditions,” said Belayadi, noting depression is 1.7-times more prevalent in women and often linked to hormonal changes during pregnancy or menopause.
This bears out in the drug claims data, she noted, where more than half of the treatment costs for depression are attributed to women, with the therapeutic class consistently ranking in the top 10 classes for spend for women aged 18 to 64.
In addition, migraine affects 14 per cent of Canadians and is more prevalent in women, partly due to hormonal factors, noted Belayadi. Severe menopausal symptoms push around 10 per cent of affected women out of the workforce, she added, and there are associated co-morbidities. For example, three in 10 women who submit claims for hormone replacement therapy also claim drugs to treat depression.
Read: Back to basics on menopause support
Multiple sclerosis is consistently ranked in the top 10 therapeutic class spend for women, while it doesn’t appear for men. This isn’t surprising, said Belayadi, since women are more likely to be diagnosed with the chronic disease. According to Multiple Sclerosis Canada, around 75 per cent of individuals living with MS are women.
On the other hand, diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol show a lower proportion (lower than 50 per cent) of spend for women, according to Express Scripts Canada’s data, which makes sense given that men are more prone to cardiovascular conditions.
Belayadi encouraged plan sponsors to understand these differences and support their female employees, whether that’s by providing more accessible coverage for the treatments they need or workplace programs and accommodations.
Read more coverage of the 2024 Face to Face Drug Plan Management Forum.