*NEW*

RETHINKING WOMEN AND HEALTHY LIVING IN CANADA

The BC Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health, the Atlantic Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health and the Prairie Women’s Health Centre of Excellence have released a new women’s health resource entitled Rethinking Women and Healthy Living in Canada . The report, funded by Health Canada, is intended to generate an understanding of women and healthy living and to contribute to the development of evidence-informed responses to addressing challenges related to healthy living for women in Canada. In the report, the three Centres argue that healthy living needs to be reframed and embrace a broader concept of health and health issues in order to improve women’s healthy living.

Rethinking Women and Healthy Living in Canada includes four parts; (1) an overview of the status of women in Canada and the healthy living discourse; (2) a profile of women and healthy living; (3) healthy living strategies and promising gender-sensitive intervention; and (4) conclusions. The first part looks at international measures of gender equality and includes a demographic profile of women in Canada. It also describes the key features of the healthy living discourse and provides a history of its emergence in Canada. In the second part, profiles of women and healthy living are provided for ten topic areas: body weights, eating well, food insecurity, physical activity, sedentary behaviour, smoking tobacco, drinking alcohol, sexual behaviour, injuries and gender-based violence. The third part of the report examines selected healthy living strategies including the federal strategy and strategies from Ontario, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island and British Columbia using a sex-and gender-based analysis. Descriptions of new approaches to healthy living programming for women, including promising gender-sensitive practices such as trauma-informed physical activity, are provided. In the fourth part, we present our conclusions.

To download the Technical Appendix, click here.

The report is accompanied by fact sheets on healthy living:

1. Physical Activity
2. Sedentary Behaviour
3. Smoking Tobacco
4. Drinking Alcohol
5. Condom Use
6. Sexual Behaviour
7. Food Insecurity
8. Self-Injury
9. Sodium Consumption

Download the entire set of fact sheets.

For more information on women’s health, please visit The Source www.womenshealthdata.ca

Equitable Consequences?

Issues of Evidence, Equity and Ethics Arising from Outdoor Smoke-free Policies

by Ann Pederson, Wendy Rice , Phoebe M. Long, Natasha Jategaonkar, Chizimuzo
T. C. Okoli, Lorraine Greaves, Steven Chasey, Natalie Hemsing and Joan Bottorff
Case discussion by Angus Dawson

The work of the BCCEWH Smoking on the Margins Research Team is featured in this new publication, Part Two, Case 5.

Population and Public Health Ethics: Cases from research, policy, and practice
Sarah Viehbeck, François Benoit, Sheila Chapman, Nancy Edwards, Nancy Ondrusek
and Don Willison

SUPPORTING PREGNANT AND PARENTING WOMEN

WHO USE SUBSTANCES

What Communities are Doing to Help

Communities across Canada are becoming increasingly aware of issues related to pregnancy, alcohol and substance use, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, and child health and development. In many communities, the needs of pregnant women with substance use issues are of particular concern as they often intersect with issues such as poverty, unsafe or inadequate housing, violence and abuse, food insecurity, and other health and social issues. In this document, we profile the development of single-access programs in four different communities and talk about why this type of program works. Download your copy.

Liberation!

Helping Women Quit Smoking: A brief Tobacco-Intervention Guide

Cristine Urquhart, Frances Jasiura, Nancy Poole, Tasnim Nathoo, and Lorraine Greaves

This guide offers support to service providers in diverse contexts (e.g. within transition houses, community mental health teams, or primary health care) to start a conversation with women about their smoking and the possibility of quitting. Research shows that clinical interventions as brief as three minutes can increase quitting rates significantly among current smokers and recent quitters. This guide is based on evidence about: women-centred care, sex- and gender-specific health impacts of tobacco, and best practices in smoking cessation.

So, how can you help women find liberation from smoking? Download the report to find out.

Production of this guide was made possible through a financial contribution from Health Canada. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of Health Canada.

Women and Alcohol: A Woman’s Health Resource

This 12-page booklet provides sseful information about the effects of alcohol on you as a woman – and the risks associated with drinking by women. It includes recommended low-risk drinking guidelines. This booklet was developed in collaboration with women who have children with FASD. They identified the need for more information and support on drinking as a women’s health issue.

Careful Measures: An Exploration of the Sex and Gender

Dimensions of a Deprivation Index

Margaret Haworth-Brockman, Harpa Isfeld, Ann Pederson, Barbara Clow,

Anna Liwander, and Brooke Kinniburgh, Editors

Click on the report to download- 1.7MB

There is considerable interest in understanding the social determinants of health and in measuring their effects, but sex and gender – both determinants of health – have received little consideration in existing conceptualizations, models and measures of deprivation. This deficit in sex- and gender-based analysis persists despite the wealth of evidence demonstrating that women are more likely than men to experience multiple forms of disadvantage and greater health inequity. If the goal of population health planning is to reduce health disparities by reducing inequities that create the disparity, then it is essential to understand where and how inequities originate.

Sex- and gender-based analysis (SGBA) involves asking new questions of indicators and data. Do women and men (girls and boys) have the same experiences of material and social deprivation and of health? How do we account for these similarities or differences in terms of indicator development and structure? This project explored the opportunities for and the limitations of one deprivation index to represent the different experiences of men and of women in Canada by conducting SGBA of the indicators included in the index and calculating the index by sex using Statistics Canada’s Census data for Vancouver, Winnipeg and Halifax. Our purpose was to examine the gendered dimensions of the indicators included in the index and the potential implications of its application by sex for addressing health disparities.

Our results suggest that a deprivation index may not apply to men and women equally. The findings point to the need for thorough exploration of sex and gender differences associated with components of multivariate indices to ensure that they reflect the experience of men and women.

This project is in partnership with the Altantic Centre of Excellence for Women's Health and the Prairie Women's Health Centre of Excellence.

Women's Health Primers

Better Science with Sex and Gender: A Primer for Health Research

Joy Johnson, Lorraine Greaves and Robin Repta

This primer is intended to help researchers understand how sex and gender contribute to health and to suggest ways to incorporate this understanding into their research practices. Incorporating sex and gender into health research contributes to better science and to improving the lives of women and men, boys and girls.

Our Common Ground: Cultivating Womens Health Through Community Based Research

Colleen Reid, Elana Brief and Robin LeDrew

Our Common Ground provides an overview of the scope of the CBR process as it relates to research focused on girls’ and women’s health, and gender and health related issues.

Gendering the Health Determinants Framework: Why Girls and Womens Health Matters

Cecilia Benoit and Leah Shumka

This primer aims to clarify the concepts in the health determinants framework and to examine its usefulness in understanding the health of a unique population group — girls and women — who face disadvantage due to structural inequities that limit their access to, and control over, material and symbolic resources, and over their bodies and lives.

Intersectionaliy: Moving Womens Health Research and Policy forward

Olena Hankivskyand Renée Cormier with Diego de Merich

The purpose of this primer is to explore the following question: How can health researchers, policy analysts, program and service managers, decision makers, and academics effectively apply an intersectional perspective to their day-to-day work? While it is important to highlight that an intersectional framework can be applied to all populations this primer specifically focuses on its applicability in the context of women’s health.

Research Summary: Integrating Tobacco Cessation Interventions into Mental Health, Substance Use and Anti-violence Services

Between April 2010 and March 2011, researchers at the British Columbia Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health, in collaboration with community partners, conducted a study on the feasibility of integrating tobacco treatment and support within mental health, addictions and sexual violence services, in a gender informed way.

The study included focus groups with service providers and with smokers, and a review of the literature on tobacco cessation in the mental health, substance use, and trauma treatment fields.

Physical Activity for Marginalized Women in British Columbia: A Discussion Paper

Pamela Ponic, Rehana Nanjijuma, Ann Pederson, Nancy Poole, and Jenny Scott

BC Centre of Excellence in Women’s Health and ProMOTION Plus have conducted an environmental scan on Physical Activity for Marginalized Women in BC. Our aim in the scan was to learn more about the current context for and activities being facilitated to promote physical activity for marginalized women at provincial and local levels in BC.

Se montrer à la hauteur du défi: l'analyse des influences du genre et du sexe en planification, en élaboration de politiques et en recherche dans le domaine de la santé au Canada.

Barbara Clow, Ann Pederson, Margaret Haworth-Brockman, et Jennifer Bernier

Ce livre présente dans un premier temps de l'information générale sur l'analyse des influences du genre et du sexe (AIGS), y compris une analyse de ses concepts clés, et dans un deuxième temps présente une série d'études de cas et de commentaires illustrant l'application de l'AIGS.

Gendering the National Framework series

In 2009 a national virtual Community of Practice (vCoP) provided the opportunity for a “virtual discussion” of issues, research, and programming related to girls’ and women’s substance use in Canada. The goal of the vCoP was to serve as a mechanism for “gendering” the National Framework for Action to Reduce the Harms Associated with Alcohol and other Drugs and Substances in Canada. Participants included planners, decision-makers, direct service providers, educators, NGO leaders, policy analysts, researchers, and interested women. The project was sponsored by the British Columbia Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health (BCCEWH) in partnership with the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA) and the Universities of Saskatchewan and South Australia.

Girl-centred Approaches to Prevention, Harm Reduction and Treatment

Trauma-Informed Approaches in Addictions Treatment Women-centred Harm Reduction Mothering and Substance Use   Mothering and Substance Use

Rising to the Challenge: Sex and gender-based analysis for health planning, policy and research in Canada

Barbara Clow, Ann Pederson, Margaret Haworth-Brockman,

and Jennifer Bernier

Rising to the Challenge is a book that describes the process of sex- and gender-based analysis (SGBA) and offers a collection of case studies and commentaries that illustrate SGBA in action. The book is of interest to people working on policy, planning and research and to people at various levels of government. It will help readers understand sex- and gender-based analysis and learn how to apply it in their work for and with women and men, girls and boys.

Do boys and girls have similar experiences of being overweight or obese? Do international tobacco control policies work the same way for men and women? By introducing such questions, sex- and gender-based analysis can help lead to positive changes in how programs are offered or how resources are allocated.

Guides for Women and Organisations that Work with Women

Two new resources are now available to assist women with addictions and community groups that serve them in making decisions about participating in research. Prepared by researchers from the Women's Health Research Institute’s Mental Health and Addictions Unit, the BC Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health, UBC, and the University of Victoria, these guides summarize findings from a CIHR-funded study lead by Dr. Amy Salmon that examined how to better support the active and meaningful participation of women with substance use problems in health research.

Often seen as a “vulnerable population” in research and clinical settings, substance-using women also have rights to be included in respectful research that reflects their interests and priorities. Your Rights in Research: A Guide for Women  and When Researchers Come Calling: A Guide for Organisations that Work with Women address both concerns, highlighting issues regarding informed consent, participant recruitment and retention strategies, the provision of honoraria or incentives, confidentiality, and reporting of research results.

Aboriginal Adolescent Girls and Smoking

Sandrina de Finney, Pauline Janyst & Lorraine Greaves

A qualitative study on smoking and Aboriginal adolescent girls (ages 13 to 19) was conducted in 2007-08 in partnership with six Aboriginal communities in British Columbia and researchers affiliated with the British Columbia Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health and the University of British Columbia. The need for the study emerged from our experiences with tobacco prevention and several research projects undertaken since 2002, which identified the need for culturally based and gender-sensitive evidence and frameworks to inform tobacco-control programming among Aboriginal girls. The study’s findings will be presented followed by a discussion on how age, gender, culture, and context intersect to shape Aboriginal girls’ experiences of smoking.

Download the full report or the 8 page summary.

Releases by the Provincial Health Services Authority and the BC Centre of Excellence for Women's Health

Taking a Second Look: Analyzing Health Inequities in British Columbia with a Sex, Gender, and Diversity Lens examines a number of reported health inequities in British Columbia using sex- and gender-based analysis. It details how understanding the social context behind health inequities, which is strongly affected by issues of sex, gender, and diversity, can have powerful implications for how different populations experience and are marginalized by health inequities.

Worth a Second Look: Considerations for Action on Health Inequities in British Columbia with a Sex, Gender, and Diversity Lens approaches health inequities from the standpoint of potential policy action. It provides examples of how applying a sex- and gender-based analysis can help refine policy options to be more effective, equitable, and cost-efficient.

View all our publications.