Health, Supporting the Woman in Your Life

by Youmasu J. Siewe, Ph.D, MPH.

The following article was published in the Stillwater News Press on September 5, 2001.

Health, a Shared Responsibility: According to the US 2000 census, women make up 51% of the nation’s population, which means there are fewer males in the country for a balanced male/female pairing. Despite a balanced national male/female birth rate, females live an average of seven years longer than males. Research however indicates that males who are happy in a relationship or happily married, tend to live longer than males who do not have a marital relationship. It is also interesting to note that the overall quality of life for children, husbands, boyfriends, the community, and nation is significantly affected by the quality of health of women. Thus it can be wisely stated that supporting the health of the woman in your life (wife, girlfriend, mother, sister), is a wise decision and a worthy investment.

Women’s health seeking behaviors and challenges: Women are more likely to adopt healthy behaviors than men and more involved with family-life than men. They often form the backbone of many social institutions, including religious and other community groups than men, and are more likely to be involved in promoting harmony in social conflicts than men. Even when fully employed outside the home, women often return home after regular full-time paid employment, and still find time to do housework such as cooking, cleaning, laundry, tend to family needs. They also tend to have more health complaints than their male counterparts, and of course, women account for 75% of visits to doctors’ offices.

What do women get from their health-seeking behaviors? Though they live longer than men, it has been argued that the treatment of women by health care providers leaves more to be desired. Example: A study showed that when a group of women and men went to the doctor’s office with similar complaints, significantly more time was spent with the men, and more tests ordered on the men than the women. This suggests that health care providers may take women’s complaints less seriously than they do men’s complaints. Another possible explanation is that health research in the past, mostly involved men, making research recommendations for male health problems, not to be considered applicable to women whose hormonal systems and metabolism differ significantly from that of men.

What other factors influence women’s health seeking behaviors? Parenting and nurturing roles, due to the close dependence of infants on maternal milk supply is a learned behavior that may contribute to make them want to be healthier. Women tend to be less driven by competition, less territorial, less discriminating in casual socialization, more cautious in mating, and prefer mates who are dominant and control the most resources. Women are also less confronting, less combative, more conforming, more interested in building and maintaining social bonds, and more likely to adopt health-promoting behaviors. These behaviors are known to keep the woman more in tune with her health status.

How to improve the health of the woman in your life:

1. Listen to her, women tend to complain that men do not listen to their health concerns, while men frequently assume that women’s complain are many and rather petty, leaving women to turn to anyone who would listen; and often turn to friends, or health providers who may also be men, and may not take their complaints seriously.
2. Talk to her and ask open-ended questions, these type of questions show your concern for her health, and tend to reveal responses that may require follow-up with a health care provider.
3. Accompany her to the doctor’s office and become an active part of her overall treatment plan.
4. Support her health promotion and disease prevention behaviors, such as: smoking cessation efforts, selecting and preparing nutritious meals for the family, avoiding excess use of alcohol, engaging in regular physical exercise.
5. Keep a log of due dates for her next Pap smear appointment to detect cervical cancer, breast self examination to detect abnormal breast lumps, mammograms to detect breast cancer, blood sugar to detect diabetes, blood pressure checks to detect hypertension, and bone studies appointment to detect osteoporosis.

Remember: Helping to improve the health status of that female/woman in your life is a worthy investment for yourself, family, community and nation.