Gender as a Health Determinant and Implications for Health Education

¹ College of Physicians & Surgeons, Columbia University, New York.
² Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York.
³ Independent scholar/consultant, Ontario, Canada.
⁴ Institute of Gender and Health, University of Albert, Canada.
⁵ Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada.

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

	Abstract

Gender is a health determinant, but gender itself is influenced, in part, by biological and psychological variables. Understanding gender's influence on health therefore requires an understanding of the determinants of the construct gender. A review of certain gender determinants is presented. The authors consider the modifiability of these determinants and present recommendations about which of these determinants should be targeted for health promotion and policy creation activities. In concluding, they argue that gender is a multidetermined construct that encompasses many factors that may be modifiable through intervention, and consideration of all of these factors should be vigorously pursued.

Key Words: gender, theory, determinants, policy, review

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