Jessica L McKinney, Susan C Clinton, Laura E Keyser
{"title":"Women's Health Across the Lifespan: A Sex- and Gender-Focused Perspective.","authors":"Jessica L McKinney, Susan C Clinton, Laura E Keyser","doi":"10.1093/ptj/pzae121","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Women's health in physical therapy has historically focused on sexual and reproductive health. The biological and social constructs of sex and gender, respectively, are determinants of health, including pathophysiology of disease and therapeutic outcomes, and an expansion of the concept of \"women's health\" is warranted. This Perspective explores the role of sex and gender as key determinants of women's and girls' health and highlights the factors pertinent to physical therapist practice. The Scale for the Assessment for Narrative Review Articles (SANRA), a 6-point assessment to evaluate the quality of narrative reviews, was used a priori and consulted throughout. Across the lifespan, sex- and gender-based health disparities exist. These include sex-based disparities in maternal-fetal outcomes linking female fetal sex to maternal hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, along with a sex-based female advantage in birth outcomes and the emergence of gender differences in motor development. A complex interplay of biological and socially influenced factors contributes to an increased care burden for women throughout adulthood and specific risks for the development of cardiovascular and pelvic floor conditions, decreased function, and increased disability. Sex- and gender-disaggregated data are lacking in outcomes literature. A sex- and gender-informed approach in physical therapy, including analyzing data by sex and gender, may better meet the needs of patients and better prepare physical therapist professionals to contribute to women's health across the lifespan. Success will take coordinated effort involving many stakeholders within and adjacent to the physical therapist community. The influence of sex and gender are lifelong determinants of health, making them critically important to consider in physical therapist practice, education, research, advocacy, and policy. In women's health, focusing on sexual and reproductive health is limiting and insufficient.</p>","PeriodicalId":20093,"journal":{"name":"Physical Therapy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11523629/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Physical Therapy","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ptj/pzae121","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ORTHOPEDICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Women's health in physical therapy has historically focused on sexual and reproductive health. The biological and social constructs of sex and gender, respectively, are determinants of health, including pathophysiology of disease and therapeutic outcomes, and an expansion of the concept of "women's health" is warranted. This Perspective explores the role of sex and gender as key determinants of women's and girls' health and highlights the factors pertinent to physical therapist practice. The Scale for the Assessment for Narrative Review Articles (SANRA), a 6-point assessment to evaluate the quality of narrative reviews, was used a priori and consulted throughout. Across the lifespan, sex- and gender-based health disparities exist. These include sex-based disparities in maternal-fetal outcomes linking female fetal sex to maternal hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, along with a sex-based female advantage in birth outcomes and the emergence of gender differences in motor development. A complex interplay of biological and socially influenced factors contributes to an increased care burden for women throughout adulthood and specific risks for the development of cardiovascular and pelvic floor conditions, decreased function, and increased disability. Sex- and gender-disaggregated data are lacking in outcomes literature. A sex- and gender-informed approach in physical therapy, including analyzing data by sex and gender, may better meet the needs of patients and better prepare physical therapist professionals to contribute to women's health across the lifespan. Success will take coordinated effort involving many stakeholders within and adjacent to the physical therapist community. The influence of sex and gender are lifelong determinants of health, making them critically important to consider in physical therapist practice, education, research, advocacy, and policy. In women's health, focusing on sexual and reproductive health is limiting and insufficient.
期刊介绍:
Physical Therapy (PTJ) engages and inspires an international readership on topics related to physical therapy. As the leading international journal for research in physical therapy and related fields, PTJ publishes innovative and highly relevant content for both clinicians and scientists and uses a variety of interactive approaches to communicate that content, with the expressed purpose of improving patient care. PTJ"s circulation in 2008 is more than 72,000. Its 2007 impact factor was 2.152. The mean time from submission to first decision is 58 days. Time from acceptance to publication online is less than or equal to 3 months and from acceptance to publication in print is less than or equal to 5 months.