Abstract
The United States (U.S.) is a leader and innovator in biomedicine, yet trails behind for many key health indicators, especially for women. This paper highlights key evidence indicating that not only is the state of women’s health in the U.S. lagging, but it is at risk for falling off the curve. Women’s health care remains fragmented; research in the field can be disconnected and difficult to integrate across disciplines—silos prevail. Structural obstacles contribute to this lack of cohesion, and innovative, interdisciplinary research approaches which integrate the multidimensional aspects of sex and gender, and race and ethnicity, with a life course perspective are sorely needed. Such synergistic, scientific strategies have the potential to reverse the trend towards shorter life expectancy and poorer health for women in the U.S. The National Institute for Health (NIH) seeks to raise the bar for the health of all women by tackling these issues through enhancing the relevance of biomedical research to the health of women and driving the sustained advancement of women in biomedical careers.
Highlights
Health risks, protective factors, and disease profiles differ for men and women of different races and ethnicities and across the life course [1,2]
The paper concludes by spotlighting National Institute for Health (NIH) and ORWH efforts to fill the gap in women’s health disparities, and to provide a framework for putting science to work for the health of all women
Sex and gender influences and differences in health and disease status between women and men is the rule rather than the exception, and clinicians should expect to see differences in virtually all patients they encounter. With such widespread sex and gender effects, a few major categories which place a heavier burden on women than men have been selected to demonstrate particular patterns of variation: sleep, cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes, obesity, and cancer [3]
Summary
Protective factors, and disease profiles differ for men and women of different races and ethnicities and across the life course [1,2]. To obtain a comprehensive understanding of changes in women’s health across the life course, it is essential to methodically examine and report health data disaggregated by sex and age as appropriate, to acknowledge and understand differences in women’s health based on race and ethnicity, and analyze longitudinal trends in health data These key factors—sex and gender, race and ethnicity, and age—form the most important intersection of influences on health and disease (Figure 1). The paper concludes by spotlighting NIH and ORWH efforts to fill the gap in women’s health disparities, and to provide a framework for putting science to work for the health of all women
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