*Sex Differences in Long-Term Trends of Psychosocial Factors and Gender Effect on Risk… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99767*

**Table 4.**

*Gender differences in the dynamic of hostility levels in age groups of a population aged 25–64 years in 1994–2017.*

unexpectedly higher among the female population in all age groups. However, in further follow-up periods, from 2003 to 2017, men showed higher levels of hostility compared to women. This reinforces our theory that trajectories in the prevalence of psychosocial characteristics change during periods of changing socio-economic patterns in society. Between 2013 and 2016, the trend in the prevalence of men over women with high hostility was consolidated by reducing its prevalence among the female population to historically low values of less than 30% in the 25–34- and 35– 44-year-olds groups. In 2017, this trend was also recorded in the older age groups, where the lowest levels of high hostility were observed among men of 45–54 years old and women of 55–64 years old for the entire observation period between 1994 and 2017.

What makes our results unique is that reports on the prevalence of affective states are limited and more commonly cited in clinical groups. Concerning the frequency of hostility in other populations, the most informative is the CARDIA study, which included more than 5,000 men and women aged 18–30. At the time of the initial survey (1985–1986), the high level of hostility was 23.4% in the study population, the average was 52.3%, and was more common among men, compared to women [21].

Sex differences in the dynamics of social support levels are presented in **Tables 5** and **6**. The higher prevalence of low close contact (ICC) among men, compared to women, was reported in both the youngest 25–34-year-olds group (63.8% vs. 57.7%) and older age groups of 45–54 and 55–64 (64% vs. 54%, respectively) in 1994. In 2003 and 2013, there was a downward trend in the frequency of the low close contact index to 46–50%, although ICC levels did not differ depending on sex. In 2017, on the contrary, women were 14.4% more likely to show a lack of social support, in comparison with men, and completely levelled the emerging favourable trend of 2013.

The prevalence of a low social network index (combined indicator: low and moderate-1) in the open population among men and women aged 25–64 was equally high in 1994 and between 2003 and 2005. Between 2013 and 2016, there was an unstable trend toward an increase in the level of social ties among young age groups of both sexes. Later, over a short period, this trend reversed, marking an unfavourable increase, predominantly among the female population of 35–64 years old, reaching, on average, 75% of the values in the frequency of the low index of social ties. Such differences are explained by the fact that women have better social connections and receive support from multiple sources, but satisfaction with close contacts is reflected in the perception of social support and the effect on health [22, 23].
