Autoimmune disease study finds females face longer diagnostic delays
An international study published in eClinicalMedicine of 6,607 people with autoimmune diseases found that 43% of females reported their symptoms had been misattributed to psychiatric causes, compared with 33% of males, and 34% of females reported psychosomatic misdiagnosis versus 22% of males. After accounting for factors including age, disease group, continent, and household finances, females were almost 50% more likely to report psychiatric misdiagnosis and nearly 75% more likely to report psychosomatic misdiagnosis than males. Females also reported longer periods between symptom onset and diagnosis, with the most frequently reported time to diagnosis being one to two years for females versus less than three months for males.
