HR 9071

1	House Resolution
2	A resolution recognizing March 24, 2004, as the 2004
3	Florida Women's Health Awareness Day.
4
5	WHEREAS, Florida is a diversely populated state which is
6	home to many culturally diverse women of every age group and a
7	large elder population, and
8	WHEREAS, health is a state of complete physical, mental,
9	and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or
10	infirmity, and women's health involves their physical,
11	emotional, and social well-being and is determined by the
12	social, political, and economic context of their lives, as well
13	as by biology, and
14	WHEREAS, mortality is not the only significant health
15	indicator when considering differences between women and men,
16	and, despite women's life expectancy of nearly 81 years, their
17	later life is often characterized by isolation, disability, and
18	health problems, and
19	WHEREAS, heart disease has only recently been recognized
20	not only as the most common cause of death in women, as well as
21	in men, but also as a health problem that may have different
22	signs and symptoms, outcomes, and responses to interventions in
23	women than in men, and
24	WHEREAS, major depression and dysthymia affect
25	approximately twice as many women as men, and other mental
26	disorders, such as anxiety disorders, anorexia nervosa, and
27	bulimia nervosa, are more common in women; and, although the
28	prevalence of schizophrenia and bipolar disorders is no
29	different for women than men, there are gender differences in
30	age of onset, pattern of symptoms, and treatment response, and
31	WHEREAS, across the country women are more likely than men
32	to be uninsured, and in Florida only one-third of women are
33	covered with health insurance through their employers, compared
34	with 53 percent of men, only 27 percent have dependent coverage,
35	compared with 13 percent of men, and many face obstacles in
36	securing health coverage, which negatively affects their access
37	to health care and may in turn have important implications as to
38	the state of their health, and
39	WHEREAS, studies have shown that organs donated by women
40	are more likely to be rejected than those of men and that female
41	transplant patients may have a poorer rate of survival compared
42	with their male counterparts; yet, despite this evidence,
43	surgeons still do not take sex into consideration when selecting
44	organ donors and transplant recipients, and
45	WHEREAS, inasmuch as clinical trials have historically
46	excluded women, pharmaceutical therapies are not designed to
47	address women's needs; and, although there has been progress in
48	identifying and understanding the role of various metabolic
49	enzymes in causing sex differences in pharmacodynamics, some
50	cardiovascular drug findings typify the need for more research
51	and a better understanding of the need for sex-based analyses of
52	responses to drugs, with closer clinical attention to detecting
53	sex-based adverse effects, and
54	WHEREAS, according to a telephone survey conducted in 2000
55	by the University of South Florida Birth Defects Center and the
56	University of Florida Bureau of Economic and Business Research,
57	only 15 percent of the state's women knew folic acid prevented
58	birth defects; and a March of Dimes survey determined that 53
59	percent of women between 18 and 45 years of age who do not
60	currently take a multivitamin on a daily basis say they would
61	very likely do so on the advice of their physician or health
62	care provider, and
63	WHEREAS, medical education is limited in nutritional
64	therapies, which affects a physician's ability to provide
65	proactive health regimens to patients, an unfortunate
66	circumstance compounded by even less emphasis being placed on
67	women's unique nutritional needs, and
68	WHEREAS, mortality rates among African-American women are
69	higher than in any other racial or ethnic group for nearly every
70	major cause of death, including heart disease, lung cancer,
71	cerebrovascular disease, breast cancer, and chronic obstructive
72	pulmonary diseases, and
73	WHEREAS, Hispanic women suffer from the second-highest rate
74	of cervical cancer, with a mortality rate of 3.3 per 100,000
75	compared to 2.6 per 100,000 for Caucasian women, and breast
76	cancer diagnoses are increasing among Hispanic women, with
77	Hispanic women having a lower survival rate than non-Hispanic
78	white women, most often due to a later diagnosis, and
79	WHEREAS, data which suggest that a patient's sex plays an
80	inappropriate role in medical decision making raise the question
81	of possible gender bias in clinical decision making, a bias not
82	necessarily evidencing itself in overt discrimination based on
83	sex; rather, social attitudes, including stereotypes,
84	prejudices, and other evaluations based on gender, may manifest
85	themselves in a variety of subtle ways, as in a seemingly
86	widespread perception that women's maladies are the result of
87	emotionality, and
88	WHEREAS, the 2004 Florida Women's Health Awareness Day is a
89	celebration of women taking responsibility for their own health
90	through greater knowledge and understanding, and
91	WHEREAS, the 2004 Florida Women's Health Awareness Day
92	celebrates the efforts of national and state organizations
93	working with partners and women's health researchers to improve
94	awareness of key women's health issues, NOW, THEREFORE,
95
96	Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the State of
97	Florida:
98
99	That the House of Representatives recognizes the health
100	disparities unique to women and designates March 24, 2004, as
101	the 2004 Florida Women's Health Awareness Day.
102	BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this resolution be spread upon
103	the Journal of the House of Representatives as a tangible
104	recognition of the unique health needs of women.

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.