Abstract
Women have been traditionally ignored in health and medical research. Some reasons for this mentality include a fear of harming a woman’s reproductive ability, fear that variations in the menstrual cycle could confound results, fear that a woman’s body could not withstand the rigors of clinical research, and an assumption that male and female body chemistry is similar. Thankfully, these fears and assumptions are being challenged and several major data-bases, designed specifically to study women’s health, have emerged. The purpose of this paper is to: (1) characterize the major longitudinal studies on women’s health, (2) summarize the major discoveries from these studies that are relevant to older women, and (3) pose several future directions for research throughout the paper.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 39-55 |
Number of pages | 17 |
Journal | Journal of Women and Aging |
Volume | 13 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 1 2001 |
Keywords
- Disease risk
- Nurses’ health study
- Women’s health initiative
- Women’s health study
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Gender Studies
- Geriatrics and Gerontology