|
Women’s health got worse in
2021, global survey finds |
|
For women around the globe, the second
year of the Covid-19 pandemic brought more health challenges than the first. In 2020, the medical technology
company Hologic launched a global survey in partnership with Gallup to assess
how well women’s health needs were being met. Countries were scored based on
women’s responses to questions in five categories: general health,
preventative care, mental health, safety and basic needs like food and
shelter. The overall score for the Global Women’s Health Index in 2021 was
just 53 out of 100, one point lower than in 2020. No country scored higher than
70 points in 2021, with Taiwan, Latvia, Austria and Denmark in the top spots.
Three countries scored fewer than 40 points: Afghanistan, Congo and
Venezuela. The United States landed in 23rd place, with 61 points out of 100. “The economic and psychological
burden of the pandemic will weigh down many households for a while, and we
know that it particularly affected women,” said Gertraud Stadler, director of
the Institute of Gender in Medicine at the Charite hospital in Berlin, who was not involved in
the survey. In fact, women were more
stressed, worried, sad and angry in 2021 than they were at any other point in
the past decade, according to a Gallup survey that factored into the Global
Women’s Health Index rankings. Women were also more likely
than men to say that they didn’t have enough money to afford food in 2021, a
share that rose from 34% of women in 2020 to 37% in 2021. “We understand you can only
impact and improve what you measure,” said Dr. Susan Harvey, vice president
of worldwide medical affairs at Hologic and former director of breast imaging
at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. “Overall, the data is sobering.
And we understand that we need women to be healthy to fully engage and be
empowered. It’s clear that the time has come to work together and begin to
find solutions and improve women’s health care.” |
No comments:
Post a Comment