In the latest annual global ranking of women’s health, the United States has fallen seven places to 30th, now sharing this position with Kazakhstan and Mauritius. The Women’s Health Index, developed by Hologic Inc., a women’s health innovation company, in collaboration with Gallup, highlights a concerning situation where billions of women are not undergoing testing for potentially life-threatening conditions. The findings, released at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, reveal a decline in women’s emotional health since the peak of the pandemic.
Hologic CEO Stephen MacMillan emphasized the importance of prioritizing improvements in women’s health, stating that the results serve as a “wake-up call.” The index, based on interviews with over 147,000 individuals in 143 countries and territories, gathered data in 2022 and analyzed it in 2023. The comprehensive view of women’s health covers preventive care, emotional well-being, and opinions on health, safety, and basic needs like housing and individual health.
Despite high per-capita healthcare spending, the overall ranking of U.S. women’s health places it behind numerous countries, including Vietnam, Latvia, and Estonia. While the U.S. shares the highest score for preventive care with Canada, it falls near or below the global average in emotional health, individual health, and opinions on health and safety. This measure encompasses women’s perspectives on issues such as pregnancy care and safety when walking alone at night.
Globally, the report indicates that women are no better off in terms of these health dimensions than they were three years ago, with several aspects showing a decline. The survey reveals that a significant proportion of women worldwide have not been tested for critical conditions like cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, or sexually transmitted diseases in the past year. For instance, only about one-third of women globally underwent testing for high blood pressure, while 19% were tested for diabetes, and 11% for any type of cancer.
The Women’s Health Index identifies Taiwan, Kuwait, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland as the countries with the best women’s health. Conversely, the lowest-ranking nations include the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, and Afghanistan.
