…Addressing nine key health conditions could cut the global disease burden by 27 million disability-adjusted life years annually, adding 2.5 healthy days per woman each year.
…The Forum launches a new Women’s Health Impact Tracking platform, a publicly accessible tool designed to monitor and bridge the health gaps faced by millions of women worldwide.
TUE JAN 21 2025-theGBJournal| New research from the World Economic Forum reveals that addressing nine key health conditions could transform millions of lives and unlock $400 billion in global GDP annually by 2040, highlighting the vast economic opportunities of investing in women’s health.
The new report, Blueprint to Close the Women’s Health Gap: How to Improve Lives and Economies for All, published in collaboration with the McKinsey Health Institute (MHI), highlights that women live 25% more of their lives in poor health compared to men and shows how targeted action around nine key health conditions could reduce the global disease burden by 27 million disability-adjusted life years and add the equivalent of 2.5 healthy days per woman per year.
The nine conditions are divided into lifespan conditions, related to a total number of years lived (maternal hypertensive disorders, postpartum haemorrhage, ischemic heart disease, cervical cancer and breast cancer) and health span conditions, related to how many of those years are healthy (endometriosis, menopause, migraine and premenstrual syndrome).
As part of this initiative, the Forum, in collaboration with MHI, launches the Women’s Health Impact Tracking (WHIT), a publicly accessible tool designed to measure and address global health gaps and promote equitable, scalable solutions worldwide.
By providing data-driven insights on health outcomes and economic opportunities, the platform highlights the urgent need for investment in three underfunded conditions: menopause, premenstrual syndrome and migraine, representing a $315 billion GDP opportunity.
“Measuring progress is essential for driving meaningful change and developing effective healthcare strategies tailored to women,” says Shyam Bishen, Head of the Centre for Health and Healthcare and member of the Executive Committee, World Economic Forum.
“Despite the opportunity to add 2.5 additional healthy days to women’s lives, they are often overlooked due to a lack of sex-specific research – only 10% of clinical trials for ischemic heart disease and migraine report such data. The WHIT platform provides a vital tool to identify these gaps and offers actionable insights to close them.”
“It is time to count women, study women, care for women, invest in women and include all women,” adds Lucy Pérez, Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company and Co-leader of the McKinsey Health Institute.
“Addressing these nine conditions can not only improve the lives of millions of women and unlock $400 billion of economic uplift – it provides a blueprint for scaling and tracking progress to close the broader women’s health gap.”
The new report highlights critical disparities in women’s health outcomes, driven by gaps in data collection, research funding, clinical practice guidelines and healthcare delivery systems.
The report emphasizes that improving data accuracy, increasing research funding for women-specific conditions and enhancing sex-based clinical guidelines could significantly reduce these disparities. Notably, while 54% of the women’s health burden occurs in low- and middle-income countries, only 23% of clinical trials focus on these regions.
The research identifies five key actions for stakeholders to address these imbalances and unlock the vast, untapped potential of greater health equity:
-Count women: Invest in better data collection to reveal the real burden of women’s health conditions.
-Study women: Fund research into female-specific health concerns and sex-based differences.
-Care for women: Ensure clinical guidelines reflect best practices tailored to women’s unique needs.
-Include all women: Address disparities affecting marginalized groups for broader health equity.
-Invest in women: Mobilize funding for innovative healthcare solutions and delivery models.
“Healthier women form the foundation of stronger families, productive workplaces and resilient economies, and yet profound gender gaps in research and scientific innovation continue to deny women the basic tools, treatments and services they need to remain healthy,” says Anita Zaidi, Board Co-Chair of the Global Alliance for Women’s Health and President of Gender Equality at the Gates Foundation.
“The Women’s Health Impact Tracking Platform fills a critical need by providing data that is both comprehensive enough to capture the complexity of women’s lives and simple enough to act on.”
The report issues a call to action to governments, the private sector, researchers, civil society and communities worldwide, while the WHIT platform and its data aggregation provide a practical resource to set agendas and allocate resources. Now is the time to act and ensure that every woman and girl can live healthier, more productive lives.
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