Closing the women’s health gap is a US$1 trillion opportunity to improve lives and economies, a report by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with the McKinsey Health Institute (MHI) found.
Women’s health gap correlates with women living in poor health for 25 percent more of their lives than men do. Closing the women’s health gap could yield 75 million disability-adjusted life years annually—the equivalent of adding seven healthy days per year per woman—and unlock US$1 trillion in annual global GDP by 2040. Now is the time for stakeholders to address drivers of the gap and improve the lives of women, communities, and economies around the world.
This year’s report, which includes analysis of more than a dozen countries across income archetypes, provides a blueprint for developing a comprehensive, global view of women’s health and illuminates opportunities to help close the gap. This report examines nine selected conditions that account for a third of the women’s health gap, with analyses spanning 15 countries representing all income levels. The selected conditions represent a mix of conditions that are specific to women, affect women disproportionately, or affect women differently than men. Five of the conditions limit women’s life span, leading to early death, and four of the conditions impair women’s health span, often causing significant distress and resulting in women living extended years in disability.
Selected conditions, in order of potential estimated gains in annual DALYs and GDP if the women’s health gap is closed by 2040:
Conditions that affect life span:
- Ischemic heart disease
- Cervical cancer
- Breast cancer
- Maternal hypertensive disorder
- Postpartum hemorrhage
Conditions that affect health span:
- Menopause
- Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)
- Migraine
- Endometriosis
Examining these conditions highlights potential opportunities for immediate progress and actions needed to close the women’s health gap over time.
Life span data is poor; health span data availability is worse
The Forum and MHI, in collaboration with the Global Alliance for Women’s Health working groups, developed proxy measures to understand the scale of the data gap. These measures assessed global medication tracking of evidence-based treatments for the selected conditions. Inaccuracies—specifically, not knowing how, why, or when women are either taking medications or missing opportunities to take medications—undermine a chance to inform investments in interventions or improve care delivery. Lack of data can often impede monitoring and surveillance of medications and the effects on women.
Notably, no single database comprehensively tracks the use and distribution of medications or medication quality. This has implications for the supply chain and patient access. The sparsity of relevant and accurate data needed for the analysis is reflective of broader challenges with data collection, standardization, and collaboration between stakeholders for conditions that contribute to the women’s health gap.