Gender differences in health and illness conditions selected and according to the characteristics of the population studied. However, gender analysis is key to understanding the experience of health and how to intervene to prevent illness. Perhaps, the most common finding across the dif- ferent chronic diseases and conditions reviewed is the importance of social support, especially by spouses and other family members, in helping people cope positive- ly with their condition. There was a widespread gender bias towards men in terms of the support received from their families, and this helped them respond better to their illness. Women were less likely to receive support, leading to less positive coping. Women were also more prone to accept their condition as part of themselves, rather than to see it as a challenge to be overcome, as their male counterparts tended to do. The involvement of both men and women in health education and interventions was shown to be an impor- tant determinant of their successful uptake. This dem- onstrates that gender stereotypes need to be examined critically as they stand in the way of the improvements in health that are known to be effective. For example, it was seen that selecting women for nutritional educa- tion because they are responsible for the preparation of meals means that men are generally excluded, yet it is men who are heavily involved in the production, sale, and purchase of food. Similarly, not understanding the dynamics of age, ethnicity and gender can be detrimen- tal to desirable health interventions. This was seen in several examples discussed in the paper. The framework discussed in this paper separated out social economic and biological determinants and consequences of health and illness to bring an organiz- ing structure to a vast number of individual studies on a range of varying health conditions. However, it must be recognized that these determinants and consequences also interact with one another as seen, for example, in the case of domestic violence. Women who are victims of violence miss more work than other women because of their injuries and hide their injuries from others, including health services, because of social stigma and fear. Thus, the social, economic and physical aspects of the experience are closely inter-related. In both developing and developed countries, aware- ness of the importance of a gender analysis in health is growing, with respect to both infectious and chronic diseases. Despite a rapidly-expanding literature in this area, comprehensive, integrative analyses are few. It is difficult to compare the many studies in this field as they are based on populations with different ethnic, socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, dif- 57 ferent geographic and ethnic groups, and on different diseases and health conditions, or different symptoms of these diseases and conditions. Moreover, these inter- relationships may change over time, with, for example, changes in marital status, age, or changes in social and economic conditions. As a result, in-depth gender analyses of health and illness are very few. If gender studies are to provide a useful basis for the develop- ment of policy, planning, and health services, a more systematic approach to studies in this area are needed. Frameworks such as the one used in this paper are a useful beginning. Women’s health programmes, and increasingly gender studies programmes, are being incorporated into university health curricula. Nonetheless, such pro- grammes are still mainly pursued by social scientists and are not seen as a mandatory part of biomedical training. Mainstreaming gender studies into biomedical programmes can greatly enhance awareness of a wider range health issues, thereby contributing to the preven- tion of illness and the mitigation of negative health out- comes. It can also stimulate much needed research on gender differences between developing countries and developed countries and on the impact of gender on the epidemiological transition from infectious to non-com- municable diseases. REFERENCES 1. Health Canada, Health Canada’s gender-based anal- ysis policy, Ottawa, 2000:14. 2. Vlassoff C, Garcia Moreno C. Placing gender at the centre of health programming: challenges and limi- tations. Soc Sci Med 2002;54:1713-23. 3. Rathgeber E, Vlassoff C. Gender and tropical diseas- es: a new research focus. Soc Sci Med 1993;37:513- 20. 4. Verbrugge L, Gender and health: an update on hypotheses and evidence. J Health Soc Behav 1985;26:156-82. 5. Charmaz K. Identity dilemmas of chronically ill men. In: Sabo D, Gordon D, editors. Men’s health and illness: gender, power and the body, v. 8. London: Sage, 1995:266-91. 6. Miles Doan R, Bisharat L. Female autonomy and child nutritional status: the extended-family residential unit in Amman, Jordan. Soc Sci Med 1990;31:783- 9. 7. Borooah VK. Gender bias among children in India