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How are women with mental health issues faring behind bars in Canada?

Very poorly, says the International Human Rights Program’s new report Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading? Canada’s treatment of federally-sentenced women with mental health issues.

According to their press release, the report “concludes that the (Canadian) Correctional Service’s treatment of female prisoners with serious mental health issues is discriminatory, violates the rights to liberty and security of person, access to justice, and health, and in some circumstances constitutes cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.”

Read the report summary and download the report here.

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The Atlantic Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health and the Prairie Women’s Health Centre of Excellence have produced a new report:

Overweight and Obesity in Pregnancy: A Review of Evidence by J. R. Bernier, Y. Hanson

This literature review focuses on the implications of maternal overweight and obesity, the experiences of pregnant women who are overweight or obese, and the provision of maternity care for overweight or obese women. Given the rise in rates of overweight and obesity in Canada and in many countries around the world in recent years, researchers, health care providers and policy makers have begun to focus more attention on the relationship between overweight and obesity and health. Of particular interest has been the impact of overweight and obesity on maternal and newborn health.

To read and to download a PDF of the review, please visit PWHCE's website.

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A recent video commentary offers an interesting and provocative take on the issue of women and statins.

In this commentary, Dr. Michael Eades discusses the videotaped remarks of Dr. JoAnn Manson at Harvard Medical School as she talks about the Women’s Health Initiative study as it relates to women on cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.

Dr. Eades asks why – despite the recent evidence of an association between statins and diabetes in women, and evidence that statins provide no health benefits to women – Dr. Manson argues that this is not a reason to stop prescribing statins to women.

See the commentary on YouTube.

Read a recent letter about statins, in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Statins for primary prevention.

Read more the issues of safety and efficacy of statins for women, in Evidence for Caution: Women and Statin Use, by Harriet Rosenberg and Danielle Allard for Women and Health Protection.

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A recent review published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that drugs for urgency urinary incontinence show “small benefit”.

Read the systematic review here: Systematic Review: Benefits and Harms of Pharmacologic Treatment for Urinary Incontinence in Women

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What are the benefits and harms of attending a screening programme for breast cancer?

How many will benefit from being screened, and how many will be harmed?

What is the scientific evidence for this?

For the latest information on the evidence on mammography by The Nordic Cochrane Centre 2012, read more and download the brochure.

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A new Analysis in Brief titled The Role of Social Support in Reducing Psychological Distress has been released by the Canadian Population Health Initiative (CPHI) of the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).

This study demonstrates that social support is an important factor in promoting the transition from high levels to lower levels of distress two years later; it also shows that the significant supports are different for men and women. For women, regular opportunities to interact and talk with people showed a reduction in distress, whereas for men, being married was connected to improvements in levels of distress.

Click here to download this Analysis in Brief.

For more information about this product, please contact Lisa Corscadden at : lcorscadden@cihi.ca.

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Read on CBC about a new study about the effectiveness of Pap smear screening for dramatically improving for cervical cancer survival. The study by Swedish researchers found that the survival rate was 92 per cent among women whose had aggressive cervical cancer that was detected with the screening. This was compared with 66 per cent for those who were diagnosed when they showed symptoms and the cancer was hard to treat.

The study was published this March in the British Medical Journal.

Read the story on CBC. 

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The British Columbia Centre of Excellence for Women's Health, in partnership with the Prairie Women's Health Centre of Excellence and the Atlantic Centre of Excellence for Women's Health, has just released a new publication:

Careful Measures: An Exploration of the Sex and Gender Dimensions of a Deprivation Index
M. J. Haworth-Brockman, H. Isfeld, A. Pederson, B. Clow, A. Liwander, and B. A. Kinniburgh, Editors

The report is available on BCCEWH’s website. 

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Young people ages 10-24 account for 27 percent of the world’s population totaling at 1.7 billion. Worldwide, approximately 16 million women and girls ages 15 to 19 give birth each year, accounting for approximately 11 percent of all births worldwide. For these young women, complications from pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death, and unsafe abortion is a major contributor to this mortality. Unsafe abortion can also result in lasting and devastating consequences, including, sepsis, perforation of the uterus or intestines, hemorrhage, chronic pelvic infection, and infertility.

Read the full report by Advocates for Youth.

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According to a recent story on the Positive Living Society of British Columbia website, a new report on the status of women's health in the province shows that women have gained an additional 3.2 years of life expectancy since 1990, but there are significant disparities based on income.

Said Dr. Perry Kendall, B.C.'s provincial health officer, "If you are in the top 20 per cent of income, you have 9.5 more years of healthy life expectancy."

The report looks at the overall health of women from infancy to old age, based on data collected in 2008. Women's health is improving over-all, with advances in life expectancy and decreases in teen pregnancy, but low-income, aboriginal and immigrant women fare much worse.

Read the story on Positive Living Society of BC’s website. 

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The first ever United Nations report on the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people details how around the world people are killed or endure hate-motivated violence, torture, detention, criminalization and discrimination in jobs, health care and education because of their real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.

Read more.

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The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) recently released their report Health Care in Canada, 2011: A Focus on Seniors and Aging

The report discusses how, as the baby boom generation begins to turn 65 this year, the aging of Canada's population will accelerate, and the health care system will need to adapt to meet the future needs of a growing senior population. The report shows that, while Canada's seniors (age 65 and older) are living longer and are healthier than ever, they are frequent users of the health system, costing more than any other segment of the population. Representing just 14% of the population, seniors use 40% of hospital services in Canada and account for about 45% of all provincial and territorial government health spending.

The differences between women and men are striking. As the report notes, "Most seniors are women, especially among the older age groups. For example, women accounted for 52% of seniors age 65 to 74 and 60% of seniors age 75 and older in 2010. Women will continue to outnumber men into the future; however, this gender split will become more even as the age gap in life expectancy narrows for men and women."

Download Health Care in Canada, 2011: A Focus on Seniors and Aging

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Many women in British Columbia find it challenging to engage in levels of physical activity that are sufficient to promote health and marginalized women, in particular, face many barriers to participation in sport, recreation, and physical leisure. This year, researchers at the the British Columbia Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health and ProMOTION Plus conducted an environmental scan on physical activity for marginalized women in BC. Their 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.

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

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Women and girls with substance use problems, mental illness or experience of violence and trauma are much more likely to be smokers than the general population. These high smoking rates for women with co-existing mental health, addictions and violence related concerns are disturbing. They provide a strong rationale for integrating education on the links and risks, as well as integrated support for smoking cessation in treatment programming for women on these related issues.

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.

Read a summary of this research on their website.

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In Canada, alcohol use is on the rise with women’s consumption catching up to men’s. Studies have found that the impact of alcohol use on men and women is not equal and that high alcohol consumption comes with harsher impacts for women and increased risk for experiencing alcohol-related problems. Ontario has effective gender-sensitive treatment services, but services are not available to women in all regions of the province. There are also many barriers that interfere with women seeking help for alcohol misuse, such as stigma.  Some women, for example, fear disclosing their alcohol use may result in their children being taken from them.

In 2011, Echo: Improving Women’s Health in Ontario assembled a group of leaders to serve as members of Echo’s Expert Panel on Women and Alcohol Use. The Expert Panel worked to identify the current supports available to Ontario women, current best practices, and key recommendations regarding treatment services for women with problematic alcohol use.

The report, Expert Panel Report on Women & Alcohol is now available for download.

Read the Echo Advance - Women & Alcohol.

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The Obesity in Canada report released this year by the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canadian Institute for Health Information finds some significant differences between women and men when looking at obesity. It shows that income, for example, is more strongly related to obesity for women than for men.

The report also finds that income, rural residence and minority status (mainly Aboriginal) are related to obesity in women and men even when controlling for health (or lifestyle) behaviours, such as inactivity, fruit and vegetable consumption and alcohol use.

Their analysis of obesity is limited, as the authors note, by fact that data on “access to healthy foods and food outlets, consumption of traditional diets, caloric density, marketing of foods and beverages high in sugar and fat to children, and portion sizes have not been considered in the analysis.”

The report was also limited by other factors, such as the fact that those not reporting body mass index (BMI) measurement (e.g. pregnant women) were excluded

To download the report, visit CIHI’s website.

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Prairie Women's Health Centre of Excellence is pleased to announce the publication of this new report on young Aboriginal mothers in Winnipeg.

The exploratory project involved talking with nineteen young Aboriginal mothers in Winnipeg with the following goals:

•  To draw attention to the labour and birth experiences of young Aboriginal mothers in Winnipeg;

•  To discuss young Aboriginal mothers’ perceptions of treatment, services and supports received from medical professionals in hospital settings during labour and birth; and

•  To outline young Aboriginal mothers’ labour and birthing needs and their suggestions for positive birthing experiences and outcomes.

Findings in the report echo that of other Aboriginal teen advocates who are calling for more research specifically focused on this population group and the need for an increased awareness regarding their maternal health needs.

The full report can be viewed here.

For more information, or if you would like a hard copy of the report please contact:

Roberta Stout
Researcher - Aboriginal Women's Health
Prairie Women's Health Centre of Excellence
56 The Promenade
Winnipeg, MB R3B 3H9
Ph: (204) 982-6632
Fax: (204) 982-6637
www.pwhce.ca

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Healthy Canadians 2010 is the fifth in a series of reports providing the most current national information available on the health status of Canadians and the performance of our health care system. This year, the report includes updated data (where available) for indicators included in the 2008 report, as well as a few additional indicators, for a total of 52.

Health Canada has prepared this report based on data produced by and with the assistance of Statistics Canada, the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC).

Furthermore, an online survey has been developed to determine whether Healthy Canadians 2010 is achieving its primary goal of providing information to Canadians on health system performance and health outcomes. The survey, available on-line with the report, should only take a few minutes to fill out.  Health Canada ask that you complete it so that they can improve future editions of this report.

Healthy Canadians—A Federal Report on Comparable Health Indicators 2010 is now available on-line on Health Canada's website, where you will also find the survey.

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According to a new study by Dutch researchers, healthy women should not be taking Aspirin to try to prevent heart attacks or strokes, although it's commonly used for that purpose.

In this new report, the researchers say 50 women will need to take the medication for 10 years for just one to be helped.

Read Aspirin not worth risks for healthy women: study (Reuters Health)

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The National Network on Environments and Women's Health (NNEWH) have just launched their latest report, Sex, Gender and Chemicals: Factoring women into Canada's Chemicals Management Plan.

This report, with ideas linked to previous NNEWH projects, calls on the federal government to strengthen the management of chemicals in Canada in order to prevent chronic low-dose exposures to toxic substances that may be having a wide-range of effects on the health of Canadians, and are disproportionately affecting women. It exposes the critical shortcomings of the Chemicals Management Plan (CMP), a federal initiative aimed at improving the degree of protection against toxic substances in Canada.

Read Sex, Gender and Chemicals: Factoring women into Canada's Chemicals Management Plan.

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In this new research report from the Atlantic Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health, authors Jennifer R. Bernier and Kristin MacLellan discuss their work comparing the health status and health service utilization of women and men incarcerated in a provincial jail in Atlantic Canada. They found that prisoners experienced a number of physical and mental health issues and a large proportion used health services and that the quality and accessibility of health services played a significant role in how participants viewed health care in jail. They also found that sex and gender influence the health status and use of health services among provincial prisoners. Females report more heath issues and poorer overall health, as well as more difficulties accessing health services during incarceration than male prisoners.

In addition, the researchers learned that race also plays a role in health status and health service utilization. Aboriginal prisoners rated their overall physical and mental health poorer than non-Aboriginals. They also report a greater need for health services, but use them less than non-Aboriginal prisoners.

Read Health Status and Health Services Use of Female and Male Prisoners in Provincial Jail.

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Women’s economic equality in the world is not keeping pace with our progress in health and education, according to the sixth annual World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2011. The new report’s authors find that, “Over the last six years, while 85% of countries are improving their gender equality ratios, for the rest of the world the situation is declining, most notably in several African and South American countries.”

They find “a slight decline over the last year in gender equality rankings for New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom this year, while gains are made in Brazil, Ethiopia, Qatar, Tanzania and Turkey.”

For the full news release and supporting information, please visit World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report 2011.

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The British Medical Journal has published a study confirming that some oral contraceptives are more likely to cause serious blood clots than others.

The study found that women on birth control pills containing the hormone drospirenone have at least double the risk of venous thromboembolism compared with women taking older pills made with the hormone levonorgestrel.

Read more about this in a report on CBC. There was also an article on Medscape.

Read the original article in BMJ.

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The POWER Study in Ontario launched their Older Women’s Health Report this week. The report notes that “Aging is an important women’s health issue. Canada’s aging population is presenting unique challenges to the health system on multiple fronts. Women comprise the majority of the older population and have different patterns of illness and health needs than men.”

The report also notes that “Older women are more likely to have a greater burden of illness including multiple chronic conditions, more functional limitations, and a higher prevalence of disability then older men. Therefore, the mismatch between the way health and supportive care services are organized and the needs of older adults disproportionately impacts women.”

 To download the report and summary, visit their website.

Note: For more information about the current evidence on women, health and aging, CWHN has created a new primer that links to an array of high quality Canadian and international resources.  We have included resources that address not only specific illnesses of the elderly, but also the social and economic implications of aging. See CWHN’s primer Aging, Women and Health.

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The Nuclear Information & Resource Service in the U.S. has released a new paper that shows that exposure to radiation causes 50% greater incidence of cancer and 50% greater rate of death from cancer among women, compared to the same radiation dose level to men.

We've long known that children are much more susceptible to the effects of radiation than adults; now we know that women are more susceptible than men. Yet the world's radiation standards are determined using a "reference man" as the guide for assessing radiation risk.

The paper was written by NIRS' Mary Olson. She, along with NIRS Radioactive Waste Project Director Diane D'Arrigo, internationally known radiation expert Dr. Rosalie Bertell, and Eric Epstein, chairman of Three Mile Island Alert, will hold a telebriefing for activists on this new paper on Thursday, October 27 at 10 am eastern time. Please contact maryo@nirs.org for more information and the call-in number if you'd like to participate.

The paper is based on underreported information contained in the National Academy of Sciences 2006 BEIR-VII report, which also concluded that there is no "safe" level of radiation exposure.

You can download the eight-page paper here. A press release about the paper is here.

The paper will soon be available in Japanese and Ukrainian as well, and will be released in both countries.