title: Exploring the impact of gender inequities on the promotion of cardiovascular health of women in Pakistan.
abstract: Cardiovascular disease exerts an enormous burden on women's health. The intake of a healthy diet may reduce this burden. However, social norms and economic constraints are often factors that restrain women from paying attention to their diet. Underpinned by critical realism, this study explores how gender/sex influences decision-making regarding food consumption among women of low socioeconomic status (SES). The study was carried out at two cardiac facilities in Karachi, Pakistan, on 24 participants (male and female from different ethnic backgrounds), who had received health education. Using an interpretive descriptive approach, the study identified major barriers to a healthy diet: proscribed gender roles and lack of women's autonomy, power, male domination, and abusive behaviours. Cardiovascular risk and disease outcomes for the Pakistani women of low SES are likely to further escalate if individual and structural barriers are not reduced using multifactorial approaches.
authors: School of Nursing and Midwifery, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.
authors: Rubina
authors: R
authors: Barolia
authors: Faculty of Nursing, Edmonton Clinic Health Academy, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
authors: Alexander M
authors: AM
authors: Clark
authors: Mary Seacole Professor of Ethnicity and Community Health, School of Health Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
authors: Gina
authors: G
authors: Higginbottom
mesh_terms: D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000628:therapy*; D000072001:Diet, Healthy / Q000208:ethnology; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010154:Pakistan; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D016387:Women's Health / Q000208:ethnology*
keywords: Pakistan; cardiovascular disease; gender differences; gender inequality; recommended dietary allowances; socioeconomic ; status