Transcript Strategic thinking about sex, gender and healthy living in

Rethinking Women and Healthy
Living in Canada
Margaret Haworth-Brockman, Executive Director
Prairie Women’s Health Centre of Excellence
Gender, Diversity and Health Workshop
February 11, 2013
Outline
How we came to do this project
What the project includes
Our methods
Some examples of our findings
Where to from here
Shifts & Silver Linings
• New emphasis on Healthy Living for our work
• Opportunity to build on expertise in SGBA (to more
open audiences?): discourse analysis and practical
applications
• At PWHCE we had experience:
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Profile of Women’s Health in Manitoba
Guidelines for practical applications of GBA for PAHO
Collaboration on Rising to the Challenge, beyond GBA 101
Recent work on Gender and Health Statistics
commissioned by the WHO
Rethinking Women and Healthy Living
in Canada
Collaboration by three Centres of
Excellence for Women’s Health
National-level project
A reconstruction and critique of
the healthy living discourse
SGBA of healthy living topics
Exploration of a few healthy living
strategies
Promising practices
Integrated Pan-Canadian
Healthy Living Strategy of 2005
Goals are to improve overall
health outcomes and reduce
health disparities.
 Does not offer sex-specific
targets nor make provisions to
address the determinants of
health—which include sex and
gender—in measurement,
reporting or formulation of
policies and programs.

Healthy Living Discourse
Some contradictions:
• Individual vs. social
responsibility for
health
• Individual vs.
collective and systemic
solutions for chronic
diseases
Leading to:
• Transformation of risk and
probability for populations into
“certain danger” for individuals
• Focus on physical health rather
than mental health
• Blame for certain types of
illnesses
• Limited attention to context of
healthy living and sex, gender,
diversity as well as the
determinants of health
A Profile of Women
and Healthy Living in Canada
Healthy Living Topics
Each snapshot includes current rates, sex-specific
details, gendered influences, risk factors, critique of
measures, and policy implications.
Women in Canada, 15 years and older - mostly
Health Indicator Framework
Figure 2. Organizing framework for gender-sensitive indicators. Adapted, with permission from the
authors, from Moussavi et al. {{2736 Moussavi, S. in press;}}.
National-Level Data Sources
 Canadian Community Health Survey, including: CCHSNutrition Module, Cycle 2.2, 2004; CCHS, Cycle 3.1, 2005; and
annuals 2007-2008 and 2009-2010.
 Canadian Health Measures Survey, Cycle 1, 2007- 2009
 Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey, Annual 2010
 Canadian Alcohol and Drug Use Monitoring Survey, 2010
 National Trauma Registry, Comprehensive Dataset (NTR-CDS)
 General Social Survey-Victimization Cycle 2009
 Association of Workers Compensation Boards of Canada,
National Work Injury Statistics Program (AWCBC - NWISP)
 Census of Agriculture, 2001 and 2006
 Public Health Agency of Canada, Sexually Transmitted
Infections Surveillance Data
Analytical Process
Definition of issues & measures
Gathering Information—review of data &
add gender contexts, meaning,
experience
Analytical Inquiry—asking challenging
questions
Implications & Lessons to build gender
sensitive strategies
SGBA of Healthy Living Strategies
 Sex- and gender-informed discussion on healthy living
strategies in Canada at various levels of government.
 Review of strategy documents plus consultations with policy
makers about how gender has been considered in their
healthy living strategies.
 Detailed examination of strategies in Prince Edward Island,
Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia
Gender-Sensitive Practices, Policies
and Programs in Healthy Living
Scoping review of research on gender-sensitive
promising practices in healthy living.
Selected examples of promising practices, policies
and programs related to our ten healthy living topics.
Recommendations for future directions to advance
healthy living in Canada for women.
Some Quick Results
• Women with higher incomes are more likely to take part in
physical activity, but are also more likely to drink heavily
– Aboriginal women less likely to drink heavily
• We know very little about sexual behaviour for women over
the age of 49 or those not considered “high risk”
• All women show excessive sedentary behaviour
• Tobacco smoking rates are largely declining, except among
young women and women who use smoking as a coping
behaviour
• Older women find food labels complicated, and they don’t
necessarily prefer cooking programs
• Occupational injury data may under-represent women’s
injuries in certain sectors
Conclusions
A gender lens on healthy living can shift
our understanding of, and responses to,
the needs of women in Canada.
 Responses to healthy living for women
in Canada might look different if they
incorporate sex, gender, diversity and
equity.
 A sex and gender lens can allow the
Pan-Canadian Healthy Living Strategy and
provincial strategies to address the
inequities that prevent healthy living for
women.

More Information
The Source
www.womenshealthdata.ca
Fact Sheets
Acknowledgements
Co-authors: Ann Pederson, Barbara Clow, Harpa Isfeld, Anna Liwander
and Linda Snyder
This project was made possible through a contribution from Health
Canada
Thank you!
Questions or comments:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]