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Book Review
Women's Health: A primary care approach
C Rogers-Clark and A Smith
ISBN: 0-864337-21-5 1998 Maclennan & Petty
Thea van de Mortel
Associate Lecturer, School of Nursing and Health Care Practices, Southern Cross University, Lismore NSW
This Australian offering is aimed at women and health professionals who wish to improve their understanding of the nature of women's health. The key objectives of the editors were to discuss major women's health issues from a primary health care approach and from the perspective of women; to outline the principles of heath care centered on women; and to offer practical suggestions to those practitioners who work in the field of women's health. The book is broad in nature. It is not, and doesn't claim to be a definitive and comprehensive text on the subject, but fulfils its objectives well.
'Women's health: a primary health care approach' explores the issues relating to women's health from the perspectives of women coming from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines. The editors have put together an interesting collection of viewpoints regarding factors that influence women's health. The text includes discussion of the concerns for women in relation to their health at different ages and in a variety of settings such as the home and the workplace. Most sections offer suggestion/strategies for the support of women undergoing particular health-related problems and discuss illness prevention/health promotion strategies where relevant.
The text begins with an introductory chapter that defines the topic and the approach taken to it, and gives an overview of the subject matter. The second chapter entitled 'Woman caring for herself' examines the impact of women's traditional role of nurturing others on their ability to care for their own health. Chapter 3 examines the health concerns of young women, with a section on contraception, AIDS, other STDs, and eating disorders. Chapter 4 discusses women's reproductive experiences and includes sections on infertility, birthing and post-natal depression.
The Health of Special Groups including women from Aboriginal and non-English speaking backgrounds, the Disabled, women in Rural and Remote areas and Lesbians is examined in the following chapter. Chapter 6 deals with Women and Violence, providing an overview of the factors influencing domestic and sexual violence inflicted on women and children. Chapter 7, entitled 'Women and Work' encompasses such issues as occupational health and safety, sexual harassment in the workplace, blocks to promotion, the health of homeworkers and outworkers, and factors influencing the health of carers.
The prevention, detection and treatment of women's cancers is the focus of the following chapter entitled 'Women and Cancer'. Chapter 9 looks at the effects of menopause on the health of women in their middle years and discusses the role of diet, exercise, hormone therapy, and antioxidants in the prevention of complications such as cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis. Maintaining health and fitness, falls prevention, continence, the effects of isolation on elderly women and dealing with loss, grief and bereavement are topics discussed Chapter 10 that would be of interest to older women and persons working with older women. The influence of mental illness of women's health is the subject of Chapter 11, covering topics such as depression, post-traumatic stress following childbirth (something I can identify with), and the effects of sexual abuse, abuse of alcohol and prescription drugs, and unemployment on the mental health of women. The following Chapter 'Women in Medicine' speculates on the consequences to medicine, society, and women's health of the rapid increase in the number of female medical graduates. Finally, Chapter 13 discusses the relationship between the Women's Health Movement and the primary health care approach to health, emphasising that the way in which health care is approached is as important as what is actually done.
Although it is useful to receive ideas from a wide group of people, some chapters have up to five contributors who have written different sections within the chapters. This results in some overlap of content and in some instances it makes the text a bit patchy to read as the approaches and styles differ quite considerably. Having said that, I feel that 'Women's Health: a primary health care approach' is a useful resource for health professionals working in this field. This text offered a tantalising taste of the many topics, which left me looking for more.
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