Acknowledgements and Executive Summary (55 KB)

At the Atlantic Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health, Meredith Evans led the research on and writing of the body weights and food security chapters and Andrea Papan contributed her expertise in food security to the analysis. [...] Three Centres of Excellence – the BC Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health, Prairie Women’s Health Centre of Excellence, and the Atlantic Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health – have followed the developments of the healthy living discourse and federal and provincial healthy living strategies to examine current efforts to promote healthy living in Canada from the perspective of women. [...] The report consists of four parts; (1) the status of women in Canada and the discourse of healthy living; (2) a profile of healthy living among women in Canada; (3) an examination of selected healthy living strategies and practices in Canada and promising gender-sensitive interventions in healthy living for women; and (4) recommendations for future directions in research, policy development, progr. [...] We describe the key features of the healthy living discourse, a history of its emergence in Canada, and examine the extent to which it can or does address the needs and experiences of diverse populations of women. [...] While several strategies note the importance of factoring in the determinants of health – which include sex and gender – many do not, and it appears that there is limited attention to women and the particular challenges and opportunities they encounter in their efforts to engage in many aspects of healthy living.