Resources

The POWER Study (Project for an Ontario Women's Health Evidence-based Report) has released their latest chapter, Social Determinants of Health and Populations at Risk, and it is now available for download. 

 The Social Determinants of Health and Populations at Risk chapter examines the social determinants of health among Ontario's women and men including: low income, low education, indicators of employment, lone-parent families, and food insecurity. This chapter also summarizes the POWER Study indicators across all chapters as they relate to low-income populations, providing a synthesis of health functional status, risk factors and prevention, access to health care services, clinical management, and health outcomes of lower-income adults. The final section re-examines and synthesizes the POWER Study findings in relation to immigrant and minority populations, as well as reporting three indicators of immigrant women's health that have not previously been reported in the POWER Study.

To download a copy of the chapter or the highlights document outlining the chapter's key findings and messages, visit their website

The French translation of the Social Determinants of Health and Populations at Risk Highlights document will be available on their website soon.

This new CBC documentary explores how our hypersexualized culture is affecting our kids – both girls and boys – from a very early age and in very alarming ways: 

“The powder keg that is porn culture has exploded in the lives of North American children. The often-devastating consequences are explored in the new film Sext up KIDS. 

From tiny tots strutting bikini-clad bodies in beauty pageants to companies marketing itty-bitty thongs and padded bras to 9-year olds, images of ever-younger sexualized girls have become commonplace.  Add to that: ever-younger boys with 24-7 access to hard-core internet porn.   It saturates their lives - from skate parks to the school bus – by the time they’re eighteen, 80 percent of boys are watching porn online. Toss social media into the mix and kids can not only consume X-rated images, but can also now produce them.  Sexting has become a Grade 7 right of passage. 

Sext up KIDS exposes how growing up in a hyper-sexualized culture hurts our kids. Teens and pre-teens show and tell what they are doing and why they are doing it.   Experts reveal startling new research, tracking how the pressure to be sexy is changing teen and sexual behavior in alarming ways, as “anal becomes the new oral.” Parents and educators struggle to help kids navigate puberty in a world where the line between pop culture and porn culture is increasingly blurred. For every parent who thinks, “that’s not my son or daughter,”Sext up KIDS is your wake up call.” 

Watch it, free, on CBC’s website.

From the press release for this new book launched January 23, 2012:

“Mammography screening has been a source of controversy ever since it was introduced, with advocates and dissenters arguing back and forth about the benefits and harms of this method of breast cancer screening. Indeed, as recently as December 2011, the BMJ published a study led by James Raftery, professor of health technology assessment at Southampton University, which found that mammography screening arguably does more harm and less good than their advocates maintain. 

Now, a new book from Peter C Gøtzsche, Professor of Clinical Research Design and Analysis, Director of The Nordic Cochrane Centre and Chief Physician, Rigshospitalet and the University of Copenhagen, takes an evidence-based, critical look at the scientific disputes and the information provided to women by governments and cancer charities ...with remarkable results.
 
Mammography Screening: truth lies and controversy finds:

- The position that mammography screening may well do more harm to women than good is increasingly the one held by neutral observers

- Across the past decade, the evidence for this position has been concealed, manipulated and obfuscated to a truly alarming extent”

More information can be found about the book on its webpage.

This newly launched peer-reviewed casebook by the Institute of Gender and Health, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, presents a range of research-based accounts that illustrate how attending to gender and sex in health research contributes to advancing knowledge, strengthening science and improving knowledge translation. Written from a critically reflective vantage point, chapters share health researchers' experiences in how they came to understand and engage gender and sex in their work. This collection demonstrates that there is much to be gained from the routine integration of gender and sex across the health research spectrum.

Find it on CIHR’s website.

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. 

Smoking Cessation Interventions and Lessons for Pregnant Women

The British Columbia Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health invites you to visit a new website, recently launched in both English and French, about smoking, pregnancy, change and support.  Here is what you can find at www.expectingtoquit.ca:

1. A systematic review of research on tobacco interventions with pregnant women

2. “5 Ways to Change Your Practice” - Practice recommendations for physicians and other health care providers  

3. “Meet Liz, Cristabel, and Noa” - Lessons from women who find their own path to becoming smoke-free

For more information about research on women’s smoking and effective intervention and support strategies, please contact the Tobacco Research Team at the BC Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health at info@expectingtoquit.ca.

An exciting new Dreamfilm documentary called Programmed to be Fat? tackles the possible role of synthetic chemicals in the "obesity epidemic".

Programmed to be Fat? tells the stories of three scientists whose unexpected findings led them to follow the research of a curious doctor in Scotland, baffled by her inability to lose weight. For three years she pored over existing research on environmental chemicals and finally published a key study in an alternative medicine journal. It linked endocrine-disrupting chemicals to the obesity epidemic. The scientists came across the paper while puzzling over their own research results.  None of their studies were about fat, but they had two things in common – they were all researching endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and they all ended up with unusually heavy lab animals.

Watch it online.

Attached please find an article about the Federated Women's Institutes of Canada's (FWIC) most recent national project - Women's Heart Health.  The goal of this organization is to inform women so they may make decisions, which will improve the quality of life for themselves, their families, their community and the world. 

FWIC will be celebrating the success of this project at their national convention that will be held in Sidney, BC in June 2012. 

Health Canada’s It's Your Health article on Nutrition Labels has been updated with new information and is now available on Health Canada’s website.

The National Alcohol Strategy Advisory Committee recently launched the first pan-Canadian guidelines for low-risk alcohol drinking. The guidelines are intended to provide consistent, evidence-informed recommendations to Canadians and to encourage a culture of moderation. The guidelines for women and men differ substantially. For example, to reduce your long-term health risks, they advice drinking no more than:

10 drinks a week for women, with no more than 2 drinks a day most days

15 drinks a week for men, with no more than 3 drinks a day most days

Click here to learn more and to read the guidelines.