Gender-Based Analysis Is Essential to Improving Women's Health and Health Care

Although women are the majority of the population, their health and health care are at times treated as a special case or minority issue in terms of research funding and practice. Without sufficient data, attempts to address gender disparities in health care and outcomes are likely to be both inefficient and ineffective (Krieger, 2003, Fremont et al., 2007). Moreover, misinformation and failure to account for evidence on how biological and social differences influence health can impair efforts to close gaps between men's and women's health and health care (Lawrence and Rieder, 2007, Prins et al., 2007). For simplicity, we refer to these as gender differences, but note that they may be biological (i.e., sex based) as well as social (i.e., gender based). Although such differences do not always favor men, improving women's health will require systematic assessment of the nature and extent of disparities in men's and women's access, treatments, and outcomes (Rieker and Bird, 2005, Bird and Rieker, 2008). Until access, quality, and outcomes of care are tracked by gender, inequity in treatment will remain unmeasured and potential intervention points will remain understudied. Gender-based analysis can lay the groundwork to develop more effective decision tools and interventions, and in turn improve both women's and men's health and health care.