Bulletin Index/

Health Status

1. When It Comes to Health, Do Sex and Gender Matter?

2. Gender,Work and Health: An Analysis of the 1994 National Population Health Survey

3. Women’s Health in Atlantic Canada: A Statistical Portrait

Health Services

4. Health Care Utilization and Gender: A Pilot Study Using the BC Linked Health Data

5. National Gender Economic Costing Group

Health Care Reform

6. Moving in the Right Direction? Regionalizing Maternal Health Services in British Columbia

7. Invisible Women: Gender and Health Planning in Manitoba and Saskatchewan and Models for Progress

8. Coping as a Rural Caregiver: The Impact of Health Care Reforms on Rural Women Informal Caregivers

9. Missing Voices in Long-term Care Policy Making: Elderly Women and Women with Disabilities Receiving Home Care

Diverse Communities of Women

10. Experiences of Immigrant and Refugee Women in Quebec with the Health Care System

11. "Hearing Voices": Mental Health Care for Women

12. Developing Understanding from Young Women’s Experiences in Obtaining Sexual Health Services and Education in a Nova Scotia Community

13. "Voices and Faces": A Qualitative Study of Rural Women and a Breast Cancer Self-help Group via an Audio-teleconferencing Network

14. Centres of Excellence for Women's Health - Contact Information

Women’s Health in Atlantic Canada: A Statistical Portrait

This report to the Atlantic Region Policy Forum onWomen’s Health and Well-Being illustrates the utility of a gendered health determinants approach for developing strategies for improving population health and women’s health and, ultimately, for reducing long-term health care costs. The report notes the highly interactive nature of the determinants of health and points both to data limitations and the need for more research in the area. While not a comprehensive overview of women’s health in the region, the report presents statistical evidence to illustrate the need for strategic investments in several key determinants of health to improve women’s health in Atlantic Canada.

Highlights of the report include:

1. Gender-based analysis reveals differences in teenage smoking, activity limitations among seniors, and different exercise and physical activity trends among Atlantic men and women not otherwise evident in population level data.
   
   
2. Increasing stress levels are negatively impacted mental health and psychological well-being among women, which in turn is related to adverse physical health outcomes.
   
   
3. Despite increased educational parity, the persistent gender wage gap and high poverty levels among single mothers and unattached elderly women negatively impact health.
   
   
4. High levels of social support and voluntary work are a key buffer against stress and ill-health in the Atlantic provinces. However, the shift from hospital to home care threatens the well-being of informal caregivers, mostly women, and illustrates the need for adequate supports for these caregivers.
   
   
5. The Atlantic region receives far less than its fair share of health research funds.

While this report was prepared to provide an overview of women’s health issues in the Atlantic provinces, the gender analyses provide directions for interventions to improve the health of men. For exmple, while fifteen years ago Maritimers were more physically active than most Canadians, today men in all four Atlantic provinces rank below the Canadian average. A sex-disaggregated data analysis revealed that overall population averages conceal sharply divergent trends among men and women in the region. That is, while Atlantic women have generally increased their rates of leisure time physical activity, there has been a dramatic decline in physical activity by men in all four Atlantic provinces. In the long term, this means that while men in the region had a relatively low risk of heart disease in 1985 compared to other Canadians, they now have a significantly higher risk than Canadian men in general. In this case, a gender analysis suggests that health officials target men in promoting sports and exercise programs. In fact, the male and female trends are so dramatically different that an overall population analysis without a gender breakdown completely misses the point of who is at greatest risk from a lack of physical activity and sends misleading signals to policy makers.

For further information contact:
Atlantic Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health
P.O. Box 3070, Halifax, NS  Canada B3J 3G9
Tel: (902) 470-6725 Toll Free: 1-888-658-1112 Fax: (902) 470-6752 Website: www.medicine.dal.ca/acewh E-mail: acewh@dal.ca

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