More Women Select Universal Health Coverage As Their Most Desired Health Advance

According to the National Women's
Health Resource Center's (NWHRC) second annual Women Talk national survey,
universal health coverage was selected as the health advance women desire
most. The survey of more than 1,100 women asked which "medical technology
or advancement(s) would you most like to see become a reality" and 15% of
women opted for universal health coverage rather than a cure for
neurological diseases (14%) or breast cancer (13%), a vaccine for HIV/AIDS
(12%) or a cure for diabetes (8%).



"Women are deeply concerned about health coverage for themselves and
their families," said Audrey Sheppard, president and CEO of the NWHRC. "As
the family health manager, women want the best possible medical care for
their loved ones and are telling us in this survey that above all, they
believe that making quality health care accessible to everyone is a major
necessity."



Women were provided the following list of health advances. Complete
results follow:



Universal health coverage:

15%



Cure for neurological diseases:

14%




Cure for breast cancer:


13%



Vaccine for HIV/AIDS:

12%



Cure for diabetes:

8%



Use of stem cells in medical research:

7%



Weight loss pill:

6%



Routine imaging tests for heart disease and cancer:

6%



Cure for depression and anxiety:

4%



Effective, non-addictive pain killer for chronic pain (that has no side effects):

3%



Cure for human papilloma virus (HPV):

2%



Cure for spinal cord injuries:

2%



(Only answers with greater than a 1% response rate are included above.)



Getting better with age



Although the majority of women (63%) in the survey were clinically
overweight or obese, women rate themselves to be in very good or excellent
mental and physical health. On a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being
"excellent" and 1 being "very poor," 72% of women rated their mental health
to be an 8 or above and half (52%) rated their physical health an 8 or
above.



However, aging does not seem to be a barrier to good health. Older
women, those 60 and over, rate both their physical and mental health higher
than other age groups. Women aged 40 - 59 had, on average, the lowest rated
physical health (6.7 - 7.1), and half (53%) said that their health had
declined over the past five years. Women 18 - 29 cited the lowest score, on
average, for mental health (7.4).
















"It seems that for women, the biggest physical and mental health drain
hits between the ages of 40 and 60 according to our survey results," stated
Ms. Sheppard. "Given that the first wave of Boomer women are starting to
turn 60, this is great news. One might conclude that older women have
greater access to health coverage and they have less care giving
responsibilities than women in their 40s and 50s, not to mention typically
more time available."




Overall, the survey shows that making personal time continues to be a
challenge for most women, especially across ethnicities. Just 48% of women
say they spend the right amount of time on themselves. Further, when women
do make time for themselves, they are choosing to engage in entertainment
activities (64%), such as shopping or dining out, rather than options that
would enhance their mind and body such as exercise (29%) or relaxing (19%).



Looking across ethnicities, only 32% of African-American women and 42%
of Hispanic women in the survey agree that they spend the right amount of
time on themselves verses the half (53%) of Caucasian women who agree.



For more information on the Women Talk survey, visit healthywomen.



About the Survey



The online survey was conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of the
National Women's Health Resource Center between August 4 and 20, 2006,
among women, aged 18 and older. Figures for age by sex, education,
household income, region, race/ethnicity and propensity to be online were
weighted to align them with population proportions. A total of 1,147 online
interviews were completed, which included responses from Caucasian (784),
African-American (146), Latina (116) and Asian (72) women. With a pure
probability sample of 1,147 one could say with a ninety-five percent
probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/-3
percentage points. Sampling error for data based on subsamples would be
higher and would vary. However, that does not take other sources of error
into account. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and
therefore no theoretical sampling error can be calculated.



About NWHRC



The not-for-profit National Women's Health Resource Center (NWHRC) is
the leading independent health information source for women. NWHRC develops
and distributes up-to-date and objective women's health information based
on the latest advances in medical research and practice. NWHRC believes all
women should have access to the most trusted and reliable health
information in order to make the best decisions to maintain and improve
their health and the health of their families.


National Women's Health Resource Center

healthywomen