The gender awareness approach in health: a scoping review

Abstract

Background: Many findings show gender biases in health and health care services. Gender Awareness (GA) is a concept that has emerged in the 1990’s and since then discussed as a potential alternative to minimizing gender biases in health. This study consisted on a scoping review providing an analysis of how GA has been conceptualized and measured in the literature and what findings have supported its relationship with health-related outcomes. Methods: Database search was conducted on PubMed, PsycINFO and ERIC. The quality and relevance of 1888 articles was assessed and 14 empirical studies were selected and included in the review. Findings: Our results showed some conceptual confusion surrounding the GA concept; GA and gender sensitivity were often presented as interchangeable. Most papers aimed to measure and compare the levels of GA among health professionals. Five studies focused on the implementation of intervention programs aiming to increase health care professionals GA. Nevertheless, no studies establishing the relationship of GA with relevant health-related outcomes were found. Discussion: Our findings stress the need to further clarify the theoretical underpinnings of GA and to collect empirical evidence supporting the contention that increasing health-care professionals’ GA will contribute to the suppression of gender biases in health.