Womens Health in the European Union

1
Womens Health in the European Union

• Dr Rachel Iredale
• 1Board Member, European Institute of Womens
  Health
• 2School of Care Sciences, University of Glamorgan
• 3Institute of Medical Genetics, Cardiff
  University School of Medicine

2
Background

• Report on Facts and Figures on Mid-Life and Older
  Womens Health (2001)
• Member States recognising gender as an important
  determinant of health.
• Political commitment to mainstreaming gender in
  health
• Differences between men and women in health
  status, healthcare utilisation and health
  outcomes
• Enlarged European Union 1st May 2004

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Population
4
Life expectancy
5
Education
6
Labour force
7
Everyday Lives

• Increase in divorce rate
• Average age at first birth rising
• Number of children falling
• Increase in female-headed households
• More female graduates from tertiary education
• More women in employment
• Part-time work more widespread amongst women
• Responsibility for care still falling on women

8
Deaths by cause
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Cardiovascular disease

• Main cause of death in Europe
• 1.9 million deaths a year
• Incidence in women increases dramatically in
  mid-life
• Cause of premature mortality in new Member States
• Improvements in research needed
• Few women in clinical trials
• Long-term studies on men

10
Deaths from cancer
11
Breast cancer incidence and deaths
12
Drinking patterns
13
Smoking
14
Hip fractures
15
Mental disorders
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Sexual Health

• Increase in contraceptive use
• Higher abortion rates in newer EU member states
• Increase in Caesarean section rates
• STIs a major public health problem
• Proportion of women in new HIV/AIDS cases
  increasing
• Much research is gender-blind
• Sexual violence
• Few large scale studies
• Under-reported and under-estimated
• Female genital mutilation and immigrant
  communities

17
Diabetes
18
Healthcare Utilisation

• Very little data available
• That which is available is often not
  gender-specific
• Long way to go for official reporting systems
• More research needed on womens access to, and
  utilisation of, healthcare service across the EU

19
Recommendations

• Collect gender-specific data (European Gender
  Institute)
• Fund biomedical and psychosocial research across
  the lifespan of women
• Target conditions that cause high levels of
  disability amongst women
• Set gendered health indicators at Community level
  
• Promote gender equity in all EU programmes and
  future health strategies

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Where next?

• We must not become complacent about womens
  health
• Health promoting messages need to be re-packaged
  for 21st woman
• The policy challenges will be to increase womens
  access to appropriate, affordable and quality
  health care, information and related services
  throughout their lives.

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Hippocrates (4460BC 377BC)

• A wise man should consider that health is the
  greatest of human blessings .