O’Campo speaks at ‘Health for Her’

Patricia O’Campo, professor of epidemiology at the University of Toronto and Canada Research Chair in Population Health Intervention Research, spoke at the April 7 “Health for Her” virtual seminar hosted by the ETSU Center for Applied Research and Evaluation in Women’s Health.

O’Campo’s presentation focused on how the social determinants of health affect women and girls. The social determinants of health include economic stability, neighborhood and physical environment, community and social context, education, food and health care systems.

She opened with a picture of famous female silhouettes and an acknowledgement of traditional land.

“We have a lot of silhouettes of famous men that we can immediately recognize, Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Che Guevara, even Abe Lincoln,” said O’Campo. “We rarely see silhouettes of women who have made great sacrifices, dedicated their lives to improving the world for people in general and for women and girls.”

O’Campo discussed how many in her field of epidemiology focus primarily on the biological and physiological factors surrounding women’s health.

“For public health, I think we could do a better balance of looking at root causes as well as intermediary causes of population well-being, and if we don’t look upstream, we may miss those root causes of inequities and suboptimal well-being,” said O’Campo.

She emphasized that these specific issues are very complex and demonstrated this concept by displaying all aspects of housing that affect health. She showed how housing issues are often presented in a gender-blind fashion geared towards men and that we should focus on a gender transformative approach.

Then, she moved into a discussion on how race and discrimination adversely affect these inequities.

In closing, she held a poll of the audience to gauge their thoughts on the presentation and topic, and she opened the seminar to questions.

The presentation concluded with O’Campo revealing who the women behind the silhouettes in her opening were.

To watch a recording of the seminar or previous “Health for Her” seminars, visit https://www.etsu.edu/cph/care-womens-health/events.php.