Facebook pixel
Go to home page
Go to home page

Closing the Brain Health Gap: Addressing Women’s Inequalities

A happy businesswoman in an office meeting with her male co-workers. Woman.

Oxford University Press

Erin Smith, Naoko Kawaguchi, Sandra Bond Chapman, Antonella Santuccione Chadra, Meryl Comer, Jessica Wolfe, William Hynes, Paul W. Zarutskie and Harris A. Eyre

Overview

The "Brain Health Gap" is a term used to describe the disparity in outcomes for brain health disorders across genders and how it negatively impacts women.The WHAM Report (Women’s Health Access Matters), a study conducted by the non-profit RAND Corporation, found that nearly 66% of the 7 million people in the US with Alzheimer's are women. However, only 12% of 2019 NIH Alzheimer's funds went to projects focused on women. The report suggests that doubling funding for women-focused Alzheimer's research would pay for itself three times over, while increasing economic gains by 15% compared to general Alzheimer's research. Women's symptoms are often overlooked, dismissed, or misdiagnosed due to a poor understanding of female-specific symptoms.A significant gender data gap in medical research and textbooks contributes to the continued inequity in brain health research, yet organizations such as the Women's Brain Project and the Global Alliance on Women's Brain Health are working to improve research outcomes.Read the full article at Oxford University Press Blog

Share this article

Related Information

The Top 10 Science Blog Posts of 2021

From the evolution of consciousness to cosmic encounters, palliative medicine to the Brain Health Gap, 2021 was filled with discovery across scientific disciplines.