THE WOMEN'S HEALTH O.T.

The area of women’s health has been subject to significant growth within our healthcare model over the past fifty years.  While much progress has been made within the United States to better serve the health needs of women, the continued need for improved research and effective interventions remain necessary.  As larger bodies of influence such as the World Health Organization (WHO) have drawn increased awareness to the need for improved women’s health efforts, stating that “women’s health has become an urgent priority,” (WHO, 2009; as quoted by Davidson et al., 2011, p. 872) it has been advocated that “the health and well-being of communities and societies is dependent on the welfare, education, and empowerment of women” (Davidson et al., 2011, p. 874).  

While much progress has been made to include and encompass the health priorities of women and women’s health research in the United States, much is yet to be accomplished.  It was not until the last decades of the 20th century that a paradigm shift began to occur in the research efforts of women’s health, emphasizing a holistic perspective with increased attention to all aspects of health (Palmer & Sass, 2013).   An effort to conduct women’s health research now reflects the conceptualization of a ‘life course approach,’ focusing on various life stages and events that affect overall presentations of health and wellness (Palmer & Sass, 2013).  This emphasis on an expanded conceptualization urges researches beyond the biomedical focus of healthcare interventions and includes an increasingly wider body of research that depicts “the interplay, integration, and intersection of all aspects of life that affect health and well-being at the individual and population level” (Palmer & Sass, 2013, p. 114).  This expansion encompasses perspectives from various social and psychological determinants of health, a shift that reflects an understanding of the greater influences and contexts in which identity and experiences impact health and wellness outcomes (Palmer & Sass, 2013).   

Within the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) has an established research agenda titled A Vision for 2020 for Women’ Health Research: Moving into the Future with New Dimensions and Strategies (Pinn et al., 2010).  This agenda outlines the organization’s outlook for scientific advancements in the field of women’s health research in the coming decade emphasizing research efforts through interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary collaboration (Pinn et al., 2010).  The ORWH has since engaged various stakeholders encouraging an “environment for interactive discourse on future priorities and innovative scientific approaches to advancing the field of women’s health research” (Pinn et al., 2010, p. 1604).  These priorities encompass a range of research topics beyond that of sex and gender in basic research findings, but also to include perspectives of “the impact of behavioral, psychosocial, and sociocultural factors on health and disease” (Pinn et al., 2010, p. 1604).