Friday, March 11, 2011

Implications of White House Report on fitness and health

The White House released its Report on Women recently. (That seems like a rather casual title for a White House report. Perhaps it is called something different?)
Anyway, not surprisingly, some things change, and some things stay the same--and some things get worse.
A writer at Jezebel conveniently (for me) compiled some of the report's highlights.
Of interest to me is the not-so-surprising fact that women are less physically active than men. Also:

"Women and girls living below the poverty line are almost three times as likely to report experiencing depression as females living above the poverty line."
and

"Many women do not receive specific recommended preventative care, and one out of seven women age 18-64 has no usual source of health care. The share of women in that age range without health insurance has also increased."

Women and girls living below the poverty line also have less access to sport and physical activity than both women of higher economic classes as well as men and boys of a similar economic status. And we know that physical activity can often ameliorate depression. See the connection?
Also much preventative care--like for cardiac disease, diabetes, and other chronic illnesses that have a great impact on quality of life--involves physical activity. So if you don't have access to consistent health care and even if you do, you aren't getting advice on preventative care...well...there seems to be a reason--more social than biological (what people usually like to blame for illness) for the fact that the number one killer of women is cardiovascular disease.

1 comment:

berita terkini said...

I would also love to add that when you do not now have an insurance policy or you do not remain in any group insurance