Rethinking Women and Healthy Living in Canada

Margaret Haworth-Brockman, Executive DirectorPrairie Women’s Health Centre of Excellence

Gender, Diversity and Health WorkshopFebruary 11, 2013

Outline

How we came to do this projectWhat the project includesOur methodsSome examples of our findingsWhere 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:– 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 discourseSGBA of healthy living topicsExploration of a few healthy living

strategiesPromising 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 DiscourseSome 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: CCHS-

Nutrition 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 Definition of issues & measuresof issues & measuresGathering InformationGathering Information—review of data & —review of data & add gender contexts, meaning, experience add gender contexts, meaning, experience Analytical InquiryAnalytical Inquiry—asking challenging —asking challenging questions questions Implications & Lessons Implications & Lessons to build gender to build gender sensitive strategiessensitive 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 Sourcewww.womenshealthdata.ca

Fact Sheets

AcknowledgementsCo-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:

m.haworth-brockman@uwinnipeg.caapederson@cw.bc.ca

b.clow@dal.ca