Working Party on Lifestyle, Specific and Deprived Population Groups Genderspecific Health Martina Dr

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Working Party on Lifestyle, Specific and
Deprived Population GroupsGender-specific
HealthMartina DörenCharité-Universitätsmedizin
BerlinClinical Research Centre of Womens
HealthHindenburgdamm 30D-12200 Berlin, Germany
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Definitions / WHO Sex refers to the
biological and physiological characteristics that
define men and women. Gender refers to the
socially constructed roles, behaviors,
activities, and attributes that a given society
considers appropriate for men and women.
www.who.int/gender/whatisgender/en/print.html
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Newsletter 2007, vol 1, issue 4Work on the
strategic documents of the Working
partyo Implementation of gender-mainstreaming a
s a core prerequiste for any biomedical
researcho Gender as a top priority strategy
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Gender and sex differences may affect health
status and access to health care of both women
and men. Some diseases, such as obstructive
lung disease and schizophrenia, are more common
in men, others, such as depression, urinary
incontinence and osteoporosis, in women.
Analytical models to interpret human health
issues need to allow for gender-sensitive
approaches, recognizing the variable impact of
gender relations and or sex-linked biology.
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Although data generating these results are often
driven by population-based health surveys, one
should be aware of the fact that women and men
may present themselves with different clinical
presentations and risk profiles at different
ages. Research based on self-reports may
contain more responses expressed as symptoms from
women than from men women tend to notice and
report physical changes at an earlier stage, and
are more likely to interpret these as symptoms of
illness.
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There are also examples of bias affecting the
generation of knowledge about men (i. e.
questionnaires to assess pain, personality
traits). Furthermore, available questionnaires
may contain gendered definitions of diseases,
as researchers themselves, women and men alike,
cannot always escape gender bias. Yet a
different type of gender bias may be rooted in
the choice of diagnostic procedures, which deem
to be the most relevant for the study population,
but which may not be adequate and / or acceptable
for all subpopulations, such as elderly men or
elderly female or male migrants.
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Physicians apparently tend to refer more men
compared with women for diagnostic work-up after
the onset of acute coronary syndrome, although
research has shown and public awareness is
growing that women are obviously as much affected
by cardiovascular diseases as men. Diseases
cannot be understood without the recognition of
underlying gender relations of affected
individual on the one side and health care
institutions not including women in numbers
providing impact on defining relevant issues in
research and clinic practice, on the other side.
 
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There is no uniform prototype of the true
disease with a generalizable set of risk factors
and symptoms. Consecutively, diagnostic
procedures, treatment choices, and preventive
measures may not be adequate if uniformity
prevails in a research setting and a health care
system providing for women and men presenting
with implicitly different backgrounds, social
roles and life styles. Klinge I, Bosch M.
Gender in research. Gender Impact Assessment of
the specific programmes of the Fifth Framework
program Quality of Life and Management of
Living Resources. Brussels European commission
2001 (EUR 20017)Pinn VW (2003) Sex and gender
factors in medical studies. JAMA 289397-400
Krieger N. Genders, sexes, and health what are
the connections and why does it matter? Int J
Epidemiol 200332652-7
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"Closing the Gap" - Tackling Health
Inequalities in Europe One partner German
Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA) EU
project involving 21 countries Example to
integrate gender http//www.health-inequalities.
eu/
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"Closing the Gap" - Implementation of
gender-mainstreamingEquality of health
opportunities needs to become a mission in every
member state, the effects of which should go
beyond individual themes. Equality must be taken
into account in the early stages of planning
measures and programmes. The course must be set
to deliver equality of health opportunities, not
just in healthcare but also in the labour market,
welfare, the environment, town planning,
transport, the family and education.Homepage of
the German Federal Centre of Health Eduacation,
February 2007
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Sex / gender concept (modified after Moerman
CJ, van Mens-Verhulst J. Gender-sensitive
epidemiological research / abbr. Psychol Health
Med 2004941-52)
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Example to integrate gender-mainstreaming
Internet-based health information guide for
womens health, health promotion, and
gender-specific health http//www.frauengesundh
eitsportal.de/
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• Our Working party
• Choice of top indicators for gender-specific
  health,
• suggestions for additions and changes of the
  European Community Health Indicators (ECHI
  list),
• in cooperation with the coordinating secretariat
  of the Working party