Comparative evaluation of indicators for gender equity and health

Promoting a gender-equity approach in monitoring health

By: Lin V, Gruszin S and Ellickson C
Published by: International Journal of Public Health, 52(2007) 519-526
Via: Eldis

This paper, published in the International Journal of Public Health, reports on a comparative evaluation of 1095 indicators selected from routine and special reporting by international organisations, to monitor key issues relating to gender, equity and health. Indicators were evaluated for their technical quality and gender sensitivity. The paper finds that routine reports have the least ‘gendered’ collections of indicators: most routine indicators, including basic health indicators such as infant mortality, were not reported disaggregated by sex or age. Most sex-specific indicators described women, and were age-limited to women of reproductive age, while indicators on the health problems of females out of reproductive age (e.g. older women, girls) were largely missing.

The paper concludes that routine administrative reporting offers large numbers of indicators; however, these do not allow for monitoring of gender equity and health. A gender-equity approach would focus on the role of gender relations in the production of vulnerability to ill health and disadvantage within health care systems, and on promoting inequality in access and utilisation of services. Action on equity in health should result in minimising avoidable disparities in health and its determinants.
(http://www.springerlink.com/content/p36j201gx8m85w47/fulltext.pdf)