School of Social Welfare, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.
School of Social Welfare, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.
Lancet Digit Health. 2021 Aug;3(8):e526-e533. doi: 10.1016/S2589-7500(21)00118-7.
Digital health, including the use of mobile health apps, telemedicine, and data analytics to improve health systems, has surged during the COVID-19 pandemic. The social and economic fallout from COVID-19 has further exacerbated gender inequities, through increased domestic violence against women, soaring unemployment rates in women, and increased unpaid familial care taken up by women-all factors that can worsen women's health. Digital health can bolster gender equity through increased access to health care, empowerment of one's own health data, and reduced burden of unpaid care work. Yet, digital health is rarely designed from a gender equity perspective. In this Viewpoint, we show that because of lower access and exclusion from app design, gender imbalance in digital health leadership, and harmful gender stereotypes, digital health is disadvantaging women-especially women with racial or ethnic minority backgrounds. Tackling digital health's gender inequities is more crucial than ever. We explain our feminist intersectionality framework to tackle digital health's gender inequities and provide recommendations for future research.
数字健康，包括使用移动健康应用程序、远程医疗和数据分析来改善卫生系统，在 COVID-19 大流行期间迅速发展。COVID-19 带来的社会和经济影响进一步加剧了性别不平等，包括针对妇女的家庭暴力增加、妇女失业率飙升以及妇女承担的无酬家庭护理增加——所有这些因素都可能导致妇女健康状况恶化。数字健康可以通过增加获得医疗保健的机会、增强对自身健康数据的掌控力以及减轻无酬护理工作的负担来增强性别平等。然而，数字健康很少从性别平等的角度来设计。在本观点中，我们表明，由于获取机会较低、被排除在应用程序设计之外、数字健康领导力中的性别失衡以及有害的性别刻板印象，数字健康使女性处于不利地位——尤其是具有少数族裔背景的女性。解决数字健康的性别不平等比以往任何时候都更加重要。我们解释了我们的女权主义交叉性框架，以解决数字健康的性别不平等问题，并为未来的研究提供建议。
