GENDER MATTERS AND HEALTH: THE ROLE OF CHOICE AND POLICY

描述(由申请人提供)： 与男性相比，女性的发病率更高，死亡率更低，这一悖论给生物学家、临床医生和社会科学家提出了许多问题。直到最近，研究和政策对话几乎完全集中在社会或生物差异上。我们建议的《性别问题：受限选择和社会政策的健康后果审查》一书将对男性和女性的生活差异及其生理差异如何导致矛盾的健康差异进行平衡分析。 我们将集中于以下三个目标：1)回顾和综合关于健康性别差异的生物医学和社会科学文献；2)研究受限的选择和社会政策如何影响健康性别差异；3)探索是否以及如何改变社会环境(包括工作、家庭和社区)和政策，以减少健康方面的性别差异，改善个人和人口健康。 我们将详细阐述一个模型，说明男性和女性生活中受限选择的微妙和累积的健康影响如何影响他们的心理和身体健康，并展示没有考虑社会和生物研究结果的社会和医疗保健政策如何在无意中助长使男性或女性容易出现健康问题的环境。我们的工作将对健康方面的性别差异这一悖论提供新的见解，并提供对选择健康的广泛社会障碍的更好理解。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The paradox of women's higher morbidity rates and lower mortality rates compared to men raises many questions for biologists, clinicians and social scientists. Until recently, the research and policy dialogue has focused almost exclusively on either social or biological differences. Our proposed book, Gender Matters: An Examination of Health Consequences of Constrained Choices and Social Policies, will provide a balanced analysis of how differences in men's and women's lives and in their physiology contribute to paradoxical health differences. We will focus on the following three aims: 1) Review and synthesize the biomedical and social science literature on gender differences in health; 2) Examine how constrained choices and social policies shape gender differences in health; and 3) Explore whether and how social contexts (including work, family, and community) and policies can be altered to reduce gender differences in health and improve individual and population health. We will elaborate a model of how the subtle and cumulative health effects of constrained choice in men's and women's lives affect their mental and physical health and show how social and health care policies that fail to consider findings from both social and biological research can inadvertently foster circumstances that predispose men or women to health problems. Our work will yield new insights into the paradox of gender differences in health and provide a better understanding of the wide range of social barriers to choosing health.