Canadian women spend significantly more time than men in poor health and with varying degrees of disability, which affects their productivity and ability to be present at work and in their personal lives, new research shows.
A new report from the McKinsey Health Institute shows that, on average, women will spend 24 per cent more time in poor health compared to men.
“If you take the 20-million-plus Canadian women, every year they’ll have an extra week of being incapacitated compared to men,” says Dr. Marie-Renée B-Lajoie, a McKinsey partner based in Montreal and co-author of the report alongside Sandrine Devillard, Laurie Lanoue, Lucy Pérez and Liza Vityuk.
The report asserts that addressing the women’s health gap in Canada could improve the health and lives of millions of women and unlock at least $37-billion annually in GDP by 2040 – an estimate it calls conservative given historical underreporting and data gaps in women’s health care.
Dr. Marie-Renée B-LajoieSUPPLIED
The efficacy gap
Dr. B-Lajoie, who’s also a practising emergency room physician, knows firsthand how women’s health is underrepresented in Canada. She has witnessed women wind up in the ER after their cardiac symptoms were initially dismissed or minimized, or those with severe pelvic pain experience difficulties, or delays getting a diagnosis.
She says these and many other health issues specific to women don’t receive the same level of research, attention and investment as those for men.
“We’re missing the data,” Dr. B-Lajoie says. “The medical standard for research looks to 70-kilogram white males as the archetype for research, which fails to capture the complexities of women.”
Because medical research focuses on men, she says there are efficacy gaps. For example, some medications either don’t exist or fail to work due to differences in women’s biology. Also, differences in symptoms in women compared to men can lead to misdiagnosis. There are also gaps in patient care that can lead to longer recoveries and periods of disability for women.
Those disparities extend well beyond health and well-being and impact women’s ability to reach their maximum earning potential, contribute to their lives at home, be engaged in their communities and in the workforce, Dr. B-Lajoie says.
“If you’re unwell, life doesn’t stop. You may still need to show up at work or take care of your loved ones. This has a compounding effect, which can lead to further illness and additional mental health challenges for women,” she says.
Addressing the misconceptions
Among the most common health conditions that Canadians have – such as cancer, cardiovascular disease or brain health and mental disorders – many affect women disproportionately or differently, McKinsey’s research shows.
While it might seem that women-specific health issues related to sexual and reproductive health, infant and childcare would create the largest health-care gaps for women, that’s not the case, Dr. B-Lajoie says. In Canada, these account for less than 5 per cent of the women’s health gap compared to men.
Instead, she says cancer, heart disease and brain and mental disorders are the diseases where the biggest health gaps in research, treatments and care are seen between men and women, accounting for 75 per cent of the gap.
Time for a new approach
Dr. B-Lajoie says researchers and health care providers should consider a more holistic approach when it comes to the unique care that women need.
“When you think about the shift required to see change, it doesn’t only come by women accessing their primary care doctor and the solution is solved,” she says. “It’s new innovation, it’s better data, it’s better medical education and medical practice that needs to come from clinical practice guidelines, research, evidence and training.”
For example, heart health, which for women is poorly tracked and underdiagnosed, needs to be better assessed and treated, Dr. B-Lajoie says. “What are we doing differently? How do we design the interventions and how do we implement them – and then how do we measure impact and track impact?”
The time for Canadian women is now
Canada has both the economic capacity and the health care infrastructure to move quickly and could set an example for other nations, the McKinsey report states. It suggests that by boosting labour force participation, improving workplace productivity and fostering innovation in health research and care delivery, Canada can turn a systemic weakness into a competitive advantage.
“It’s an all-hands-on-deck situation where only a coordinated response can solve this problem,” Dr. B-Lajoie says. “It’s not a problem that women can solve on their own either. It’s by coming together that we’ll be able to fully improve the health of Canadian women – no matter where they live – and unlock this potential.”
Advertising feature produced by Globe Content Studio with McKinsey Health Institute. The Globe’s editorial department was not involved.
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