1

INTEGRATING A GENDER PERSPECTIVE INTO HEALTH

STATISTICS

Arman BidarbakhtniaStatistician, UNSIAP

2

Areas of focus

Health and nutrition of children

Maternal health

Mortality and causes of death

HIV and AIDS

Health risks related to life style

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Health and nutrition of childrenGender issues:

-Survival chance: Non-biological factors

-Health care discrimination

-Nutritional status

Data needs (by sex):-Death (under 1&5)-Ever born & surviving

(by age of mother)-Vaccination

-Symptoms

-Health exp-Nutritional status

Measurement:

-Reporting error/bias

-Rare events (wide CIs)

-Age disaggergation (Nutritional status; age 2)

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Under 5 mortality rate per 1,000 live birth by sex, 1995 - 2000, 2000 - 2005 and 2005 – 2010 (Source: UN 2010)

199

5 -

2000

2000

- 2

005

2005

- 2

010

199

5 -

2000

2000

- 2

005

2005

- 2

010

199

5 -

2000

2000

- 2

005

2005

- 2

010

199

5 -

2000

2000

- 2

005

2005

- 2

010

199

5 -

2000

2000

- 2

005

2005

- 2

010

199

5 -

2000

2000

- 2

005

2005

- 2

010

199

5 -

2000

2000

- 2

005

2005

- 2

010

World Africa Asia Europe latin Amer-ica & Car-

ibbean

Northen American

Oceania

0

30

60

90

120

150

180close

5

Maternal HealthGender issues:

-Outcome: mortality

-Access to prenatal care

-Access to skilled personnel

-Who are at more risk?

Data needs (for at

least two points in time):-Maternal death

-Live birth

-Visits to health facilities

-Contraceptive use

-Attendance by skilled personnel

Measurement:-Misclassification

-Rare events (wide CIs)

-Concepts (types of contraceptive)-Underreporting (abortions)-Disaggregation (age, m.s., edu, geo, eco, hh,..)

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Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR), 2005

Source: WHO, Maternal Mortality in 2005 (2007)

World Latin America and the

Caribean

Asia Oceania Africa0

200

400

600

800

400

130

330

430

820

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Mortality and causes of deathGender issues:

-Outcome: Life expectancy

-Resilience (M vs F)

-Main causes of death (M vs F)

-Cancer: distribution

Data needs (by age

and sex):

-Death

-Cause of death

-Population distribution

Measurement:

-Underreporting (sex-selective)

-Misreporting & misclassification (cause of death)

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Source: UN 2010

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HIV and AIDSGender issues:

-Risk: F vs M

-Knowledge: M vs F

-Youth: condom use (M vs F)

Data needs (by age

and sex):-Prevalence

-Death

-HIV testing

-Access to medicine

-High risk sexual behavior-Knowledge

Measurement:

-Sensitive topic- Sex bias in HIV

testing in surveys

- Bias towards socially desirable answers

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Percentage of women among HIV-positive adults by region, 2001 and 2007

Source: UNAIDS, Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic (2008)

Wor

ld

Sub-S

ahar

an A

frica

North

Afri

ca a

nd M

iddle

East

South

and

Sou

th-E

ast A

sia

East A

sia

Latin

Am

erica

Wes

tern

and

Cen

tral E

urop

e

Easte

rn E

urop

e an

d Cen

tral A

sia

Caribb

ean

North

Am

erica

Ocean

ia 0

20

40

60

80

51

5954

37

2732

26 28

46

17 18

50

5954

37

2732

2731

50

21

30

20012007

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Health risks related to life styleGender issues:

-Cultural/social habits: Drinking & smoking, …

-Obesity

-Exposure to indoor pollution (F)

-Exposure to injuries (M)

Data needs (by age

and sex):-Alcohol consumption

-Smokers

-Obese population

-Physical activities

-Types of fuels

-Injuries

Measurement:

-Limited information on physical activities

-Difficulty in identifying risk for different levels of alcohol consumption

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Source: UN 2010

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Sources of data

Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS)

Censuses

Household surveys: DHS, MICS, HIES, WHS, TUS