Indigenous Women, Health, and Healthcare

Author(s):  
Charlotte Loppie ◽  
Alexandra Kent

For Indigenous women, gender intersects with cultural and racialized identities to create complex inequities in health and healthcare. The experience of Indigenous women within the Canadian healthcare context is explored using the Xpey’ Relational Environments Framework. Relational environments that shape Indigenous women’s wellness encompass human and non-human interactions, healthcare and community settings, and sociocultural contexts. By framing determinants of Indigenous women’s health in this way, the chapter demonstrates the layered complexity of risk as well as opportunities for healing. Indigenous women over the lifespan are shown to have a disproportionate burden of illnesses and comorbidities that are situated within the foundations of colonialism, racism, violence, and a range of socioeconomic inequities. Sources of strength and resilience that nurture the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellness of Indigenous women are highlighted.

1983 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 373-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lesley Doyal

The women's health movement in Britain can be divided into three main stages. During the first period, most activities took place outside the National Health Service (NHS) and the emphasis was on women as consumers of medical care. Feminists exposed the sexism inherent in most medical practice and stressed the need for women to gain control of reproductive technology. During the second phase, these priorities shifted toward a greater concern with the need to defend the NHS against reductions in resources and to oppose the increasing privatization of medical care. These campaigns involved women not only as users of medical services but also as health workers, thereby bringing the women's health movement into the wider political arena. They also led to the growth of a socialist feminist analysis of women's health issues and a recognition that feminist participation in health struggles is essential if the NHS is to be not merely defended but qualitatively changed to meet the real needs of consumers and workers. During the third (and current) stage of the women's health movement, feminists have moved beyond a concern with medical care alone toward the development of a socialist feminist epidemiology—toward the identification and eventual elimination of those aspects of contemporary society that make women sick.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel A. Alvarez-Mon ◽  
Carolina Donat-Vargas ◽  
Maria Llavero-Valero ◽  
Alfredo Gea ◽  
Melchor Alvarez-Mon ◽  
...  

Background: Media outlets influence social attitudes toward health habits. The analysis of tweets has become a tool for health researchers.Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the distribution of tweets about women's health and the interest generated among Twitter users.Methods: We investigated tweets posted by 25 major U.S. media outlets about pre-menopausal and post-menopausal women's health between January 2009 and December 2019 as well as the retweets generated. In addition, we measured the sentiment analysis of these tweets as well as their potential dissemination.Results: A total of 376 tweets were analyzed. Pre-menopausal women's health accounted for most of the tweets (75.3%). Contraception was the main focus of the tweets, while a very limited number were related to infertility (1.4%). With regard to medical content, the effectiveness of contraceptive methods was the most frequent topic (46.2%). However, tweets related to side effects achieved the highest retweet-to-tweet ratio (70.3). The analysis of sentiments showed negative perceptions on tubal ligation.Conclusions: The U.S. media outlets analyzed are more interested in pre-menopausal than in post-menopausal women health and focused their content on contraception, while Twitter users showed greater interest in side effects.


Author(s):  
Sidra Qureshi ◽  
◽  
Furqan Ahmed Siddiqi ◽  
Waqar Ahmed Awan ◽  
◽  
...  

Women’s health in its widest definition includes study of whole body particularly examining biological characteristics unique to women, with a focus on reproductive organs, body structure, hormones, childhood development and genetics.1 In 2017, maternal mortality ratio was determined to be 211 deaths per 100,000 live birth globally and in Pakistan, the ratio was 186 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2021.2,3 Besides obstetrical health issues, Pakistani female are also facing gynecological maladies on a large scale as compared to other countries such as grade I and II pelvic organ prolapse that is likely to be managed through pelvic physical therapy as per National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines.4 Regrettably, the burden of disease is increased manifolds due to unavailability of expert women’s health physical therapist.5 Like many countries, Pakistan is signatory to several international commitments till now to empower the women. To overcome the lacking, women’s health issues should be fostered by a woman’s health physical therapist. A women health physical therapist evaluates, treats, and educates a woman throughout the stages of life starting form active child-bearing years, pregnancy, postpartum, perimenopause and post menopause.6 The area of practice has now spread to encompass all health concerns of a woman namely infertility, osteoporosis, fibromyalgia, rehabilitation following gynecological surgery, breast cancer rehabilitation, incontinence, dyspareunia, vulvodynia, pregnancy related musculoskeletal pain, lymphedema, wellness and exercise. A woman throughout the life span whether a childbearing woman, a menopausal and a young athlete or an elderly woman can obtain benefit from women’s health physical therapy (WHPT). The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) claims that conjoint care provided by physician and physical therapist can enormously improve treatment prognosis.7 An optimal quality of life for a woman can be ensured through clinical evaluation and assessment to plan physical therapy interventions incorporated with various modalities that are cautiously prescribed according to an individual’s scenario.8 It is about time to emphasize WHPT practice throughout the country. There is a prolonged schedule to fulfil all fundamental components of women’s health issues which demands the joint collaboration of health-care providers, governments, policy makers, and the overall population. This article shout-out to novice physical therapy professionals to get themselves enrolled in WHPT specialty degree for the betterment of women. It is the need of hour to incorporate the services of qualified and expert WHPT professional in large tertiary care hospitals whether public or private, so that the premium quality of medical services pertaining to women health is available to the masses of all walks of life.


This handbook covers the role of the nurse in the context of women’s health in primary care and hospital and community settings. It explains the role of the multidisciplinary team, and covers the basic anatomy and physiology required for good care of women, alongside techniques for examination, record-keeping, and clinical governance. The handbook discusses paediatric and adolescent gynaecology, menstrual and bleeding disorders, hormone and endocrine disorders, and other issues with women’s health. Management and care during the menopause are detailed, as is a full spectrum of contraceptive methods. Fertility and subfertility are included, alongside assisted conception and management of pregnancy. Various screening programmes and techniques for investigations are included.


Author(s):  
Livhuwani Muthelo ◽  
Masenyani Oupa Mbombi ◽  
Mamare Adelaide Bopape ◽  
Tebogo Maria Mothiba

(1) Background: Women remain highly vulnerable to numerous risks at work, including labor rights violations, violence and harassment, myriad general and reproductive health risks. The availability of the comprehensive services remains the only hope for these women, yet very little is known about their perspective. (2) Aim: To determine the experiences of women regarding the availability of comprehensive women’s health services in the industries of Limpopo (South Africa). (3) Methods: The project adopted the qualitative research method to determine the experiences of women related to the availability of comprehensive women’s health services. Non-probability purposive and convenience sampling was used to select 40 women employed in two beverage producing industries. A semi-structured interview with an interview guide was used to collect data that were analyzed using thematic analysis. (4) Results: Four themes emerged about the available health services in the two industries; diverse experiences related to available women’s health services, knowledge related to women’s health services, and diverse description of women’s health services practice and risks. The themes are interpreted into ten sub-themes. (5) Conclusions and Recommendations: There is a lack of available comprehensive women health services at the two beverage producing industries. Thus, women face challenges regarding accessing comprehensive women’s reproductive health care services as well as being exposed to health hazards such as burns, bumps, injuries and suffering from inhalation injuries and burns from moving machines, noise, slippery floors, and chemicals that are used for production in the industry. Women expressed dissatisfaction in the industries regarding the provided general health and primary healthcare services that have limited women’s health-specific services. We recommended that the industries should prioritize designing and developing the comprehensive women health services that to enable women at the industries to have access to good-quality reproductive health care and effective interventions.


Informatics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Yanyan Wang ◽  
Jin Zhang

New health-related concepts, terms, and topics emerge, and the meanings of existing terms and topics keep changing. This study investigated and explored the evolutions of the women’s health topic on Wikipedia. The creation time, page views data, page edits data, and text of historical versions of 207 women-health-related entries from 2010 to 2017 on Wikipedia were collected. Coding, subject analysis, descriptive and inferential statistical analysis, and Self-Organizing Map and n-gram approaches were employed to explore the characteristics and evolutions of the entries for the women’s health topic. The results show that the number of the women-health-related entries kept increasing from 2010 to 2017, and nearly half of them were related to the supports and protection of women’s health. The total number of page views of the investigated items increased from 2011 to 2013, but it decreased from 2013 to 2017, while the total number of page edits stayed stable from 2010 to 2017. Growing subjects were found during the investigated period, such as abuse and violence, and family planning and reproduction. However, the entries related to the economy and politics were diminishing. There was no association between the internal characteristic evolution and the external popularity evolution of the women’s health topic.


1998 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 106
Author(s):  
Gai Wilson ◽  
David Legge ◽  
Paul Butler ◽  
Maria Wright

The pre-conditions, processes, and outcomes associated with best practice in women's health at the primary health care level are discussed. The paper draws on a study which identified projects that exemplified best practice in relation to: collaboration with consumers and communities; the adoption of a social model of health; the collaboration between providers at different levels of the health system and government; and addressing immediate health needs in a way which recognises the underlying conditions which cause ill health. The methodology involved identifying 187 recently published and documented episodes of primary health care practice. Using ratings and reports from 90 experienced referees from around Australia, the 187 case studies were reduced to 25 which the referees agreed represented 'best practice'. A more detailed investigation of these 25 studies was undertaken to determine what structures contributed to the good processes and outcomes. Of these, eight were women's health projects, with six undertaken by women's health services in Victoria. The paper outlines the kinds of outcomes, processes and pre-conditions which are associated with best practice as illustrated by one of the Victorian women's health projects. The findings from this research project provided practical, informative and useful models of best practice which can be of assistance to women, health workers, policy makers and government.


Author(s):  
Marian A. Aguilar

This entry provides an abbreviated version of the status of women's health in the United States, highlighting health care utilization, health care expenditures, policy issues, barriers to health care, and the impact on populations at risk. The findings accentuate the importance of moving the women's health care agenda forward because of the persistence of health disparities not just among women of color but among women with disabilities, adolescents, women in violent relationships, women with AIDS, women who are incarcerated, women who are homeless, older low-income women, women on welfare, and lesbian women.


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