Advancing on the Discussion of Gender-Specific Health Determinants

This article offers an important perspective of the potential determinants to be considered within the multidimensional term of gender. The relevance of this discussion is expressed in a primary recommendation from the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) 2001 report (Exploring the Biological Contributions to Human Health: Does Sex Matter?) to elucidate uses of the terms sex (biological) and gender (self-concept; societal) and build a conceptual framework. The purpose of this author’s work is best illuminated by the following statement from the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH, 1999) task force on women’s health research: To assume that the differences in health status or outcomes between men and women is [sic] biological leaves us a restricted set of choices for research and treatment. If we do not explore the complex relationship between “nature ” and “nurture, ” how can we conduct appropriate research into health and disease in women and treat them fairly? (p. 19) Women have traditionally been underrepresented in health-related research, and this ultimately results in lack of interpretation of the findings. This is evidenced by the author’s description of a study of gender differences in the role of perceived support on subsequent myocardial infarctions. Although the results indicated gender differences, the minimal number of women enrolled served only to fuel the need for replication with a more representative sample of both men and women. Maintaining standards for inclusion of women in behavioral and social science research will benefit the larger research com-munity by adding substance and relevance to the overarching women’s health research agenda. O esearch will exten well. For th as pro-moted ef IOM’s (2001) re ses that dispropor the full utilizatio ption of diseases