Women's health issues : official publication of the Jacobs Institute of Women's Health
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Womens Health Issues · Jan 2012
Salary discrepancies between practicing male and female physician assistants.
Salary discrepancies between male and female physicians are well documented; however, gender-based salary differences among clinically practicing physician assistants (PAs) have not been studied since 1992 (Willis, 1992). Therefore, the objectives of the current study are to evaluate the presence of salary discrepancies between clinically practicing male and female PAs and to analyze the effect of gender on income and practice characteristics. ⋯ These results suggest that certain salary discrepancies remain between employed male and female PAs regardless of specialty, experience, or other practice characteristics.
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Womens Health Issues · Nov 2011
Provision of emergency contraception at student health centers in California community colleges.
Approximately half of all pregnancies in the United States are unintended, with the highest rates reported among college-age women. The availability of emergency contraception (EC) pills can be an important component of efforts to reduce unintended pregnancy. Student health centers at community colleges can uniquely support student retention and academic achievement among college students by making EC available to reduce the rate of unintended pregnancy and prevent college drop-out. This article highlights findings from an assessment of EC provision in student health centers within the California community college system (n = 73). ⋯ This article provides recommendations for community college health centers to improve access and delivery of EC by addressing issues such as cost and offering more novel EC promotion methods.
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Womens Health Issues · Nov 2011
Women in HIV conference research: trends and content analysis of abstracts presented at 17 HIV/AIDS conferences from 2003 to 2010.
HIV/AIDS conferences provide an opportunity to review current research from around the world. Conferences are a good gauge of the amount of research conducted on HIV/AIDS and women because papers are disseminated widely and publicly, and can represent published or unpublished material. The objective of this study was to conduct content analysis and data coding to quantify trends in women-specific research in HIV/AIDS abstracts at the International AIDS Conferences (AIDS), the Canadian Association for HIV Research (CAHR) Conferences, and the Conferences on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) over a 7-year time period. ⋯ The AIDS conferences showed an increase in women-specific abstracts over time, probably owing to a gender policy implemented in 2008 and a women's research award. The CAHR conference instituted a gender policy in 2011, and the CROI conference should follow suit. Conference abstracts should include breakdown and analysis by gender.
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Womens Health Issues · Jul 2011
Comparative StudyPsychiatric diagnoses and neurobehavioral symptom severity among OEF/OIF VA patients with deployment-related traumatic brain injury: a gender comparison.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has substantial negative implications for the post-deployment adjustment of veterans who served in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF); however, most research on veterans has focused on males. This study investigated gender differences in psychiatric diagnoses and neurobehavioral symptom severity among OEF/OIF veterans with deployment-related TBI. ⋯ Although PTSD was the most common condition for both men and women, it is also critical for providers to identify and treat other conditions, especially depression and neurobehavioral symptoms, among women veterans with deployment-related TBI.
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Womens Health Issues · Jul 2011
"Homelessness and trauma go hand-in-hand": pathways to homelessness among women veterans.
Veterans comprise a disproportionate fraction of the nation's homeless population, with women veterans up to four times more likely to be homeless than non-veteran women. This paper provides a grounded description of women veterans' pathways into homelessness. ⋯ Collectively, these multiple, interacting roots and contextual factors form a "web of vulnerability" that is a target for action. Multiple points along the pathways to homelessness represent critical junctures for VA and community-based organizations to engage in prevention or intervention efforts on behalf of women veterans. Considering the multiple, interconnected challenges that these women veterans described, solutions to homelessness should address multiple risk factors, include trauma-informed care that acknowledges women veterans' traumatic experiences, and incorporate holistic responses that can contribute to healing and recovery.