Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are responsible for approximately 35% of all deaths in women. In 2019, the global age-standardized CVD prevalence and mortality of women were 6,403 per 100,000 and 204 per 100,000, respectively. Although the age- and population-adjusted prevalence has decreased globally, opposite trends are evident in regions of socioeconomic deprivation. Cardiovascular health and outcomes are influenced by regional socioeconomic, environmental, and community factors, in addition to health care system and individual factors. Cardiovascular care in women is commonly plagued by delayed diagnoses, undertreatment, and knowledge gaps, particularly in women-specific or women-predominant conditions. In this paper, we describe the global epidemiology of CVD and highlight multilevel determinants of cardiometabolic health. We review knowledge and health care gaps that serve as barriers to improving CVD outcomes in women. Finally, we present national, community, health care system, and research strategies to comprehensively address cardiometabolic risk and improve outcomes in women.

This study investigates the determinants of gender disparities in financial inclusion in Pakistan using Global Findex 2021 survey data. We aim to quantify gender gaps in financial access and use, and to analyze the socio-economic factors influencing these disparities. Grounded in Sen\'s capability approach and behavioral economics, we employ logistic regression to examine how gender influences the ownership and usage of financial products. Our results reveal significant gender gaps: only 13% of Pakistani women have financial accounts compared to 34% of men, with similar disparities in digital finance. Socio-economic variables like education, income, and employment are found to influence financial inclusion differently for men and women. While generally supportive of financial inclusion, these factors have a weaker effect for women, suggesting deeper societal barriers. This study adds to the global financial inclusion discourse by providing a comprehensive analysis of gender disparities in Pakistan. Our findings highlight the need for gender-sensitive policies that address these disparities to achieve Sustainable Development Goals related to gender equality and economic empowerment.

UNASSIGNED: The objective of this study is to explore the relationship between sex and jaw function and to test whether anxiety mediates the causal relationship between sex and jaw function in temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) patients.
UNASSIGNED: A total of 488 participants with TMD were included in the analysis. Demographic data were collected. Generalized anxiety symptoms and anxiety severity were initially assessed using the GAD-7 questionnaire. And jaw function limitation was measured using the JFLS-8 scale. A directed acyclic graph (DAG) was used in this study to evaluate the hypotheses. Mediation analysis was conducted to explore causality and to calculate the total effect, natural direct effect (NDE) and natural indirect effect (NIE).
UNASSIGNED: In TMD patients, there was a significant association between female and jaw function (r = 0.17, p < 0.001), female and anxiety (r = 0.15, p = 0.002), anxiety and jaw function (r = 0.35, p < 0.001). In addition, sex can directly lead to differences in impaired jaw function (NDE: 3.719, 95% CI: 1.619-5.828, p < 0.001), and can also be causally related to jaw function through anxiety (NIE: 1.146, 95% CI: 0.267-2.024, p = 0.011). And the total effect was 4.865 (95% CI, 2.709-7.029, p < 0.001).
UNASSIGNED: A causal mechanism was found that anxiety acts as a mediator of sex effects on jaw function. Therefore, psychological factors need to be taken into account in the treatment of female TMD patients. Further clinical trials are needed to explore whether psychotherapy is more beneficial to improve jaw function in female TMD patients.

OBJECTIVE: As one of the most severe public health issues, depressive symptoms have attracted wide attention around the world. This study aims to investigate the mediating role of marital life satisfaction in the relationship between gender inequality perception and depressive symptoms.
METHODS: Data were obtained from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) conducted in 2020. This study incorporated a total of 13,409 married residents aged 20 and above.
RESULTS: The residents with middle (B = 0.19, 95 % CI = 0.01, 0.40) or high perception of gender inequality (B = 0.55, 95 % CI = 0.34, 0.75) were more likely to develop depressive symptoms. Marital life satisfaction plays a mediating effect in the relationship between patterns of gender inequality perception and depressive symptoms, and the mediating effect accounted for 4.89 % or 1.37 % of the total impact in the residents with middle or high patterns of gender inequality perception.
CONCLUSIONS: Further studies need to understand the mechanisms of perceived patterns of gender inequality and depressive symptoms, because the cross-sectional design in this study cannot draw causal inferences.
CONCLUSIONS: Patterns of gender inequality perception are significantly associated with depressive symptoms. Marital life satisfaction plays a mediating role in the relationship between patterns of gender inequality perception and depressive symptoms. It is plausible that nurturing healthy marital relationships could mitigate depressive symptoms in individuals who perceive high degrees of gender disparity.

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Background Knowledge gaps remain in how gender-related socioeconomic inequality affects sex disparities in cardiovascular diseases (CVD) prevention and outcome. Methods and Results Based on a nationwide population cohort, we enrolled 3 737 036 residents aged 35 to 75 years (2014-2021). Age-standardized sex differences and the effect of gender-related socioeconomic inequality (Gender Inequality Index) on sex disparities were explored in 9 CVD prevention indicators. Compared with men, women had seemingly better primary prevention (aspirin usage: relative risk [RR], 1.24 [95% CI, 1.18-1.31] and statin usage: RR, 1.48 [95% CI, 1.39-1.57]); however, women\'s status became insignificant or even worse when adjusted for metabolic factors. In secondary prevention, the sex disparities in usage of aspirin (RR, 0.65 [95% CI, 0.63-0.68]) and statin (RR, 0.63 [95% CI, 0.61-0.66]) were explicitly larger than disparities in usage of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin receptor blockers (RR, 0.88 [95% CI, 0.84-0.91]) or β blockers (RR, 0.67 [95% CI, 0.63-0.71]). Nevertheless, women had better hypertension awareness (RR, 1.09 [95% CI, 1.09-1.10]), similar hypertension control (RR, 1.01 [95% CI, 1.00-1.02]), and lower CVD mortality (hazard ratio, 0.46 [95% CI, 0.45-0.47]). Heterogeneities of sex disparities existed across all subgroups. Significant correlations existed between regional Gender Inequality Index values and sex disparities in usage of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin receptor blockers (Spearman correlation coefficient, r=-0.57, P=0.0013), hypertension control (r=-0.62, P=0.0007), and CVD mortality (r=0.45, P=0.014), which remained significant after adjusting for economic factors. Conclusions Notable sex disparities remain in CVD prevention and outcomes, with large subgroup heterogeneities. Gendered socioeconomic factors could reinforce such disparities. A sex-specific perspective factoring in socioeconomic disadvantages could facilitate more targeted prevention policy making.

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BACKGROUND: Gender disparity in authorship broadly persists in medical literature, little is known about female authorship within pulmonary medicine.
METHODS: A bibliometric analysis of publications from 2012 to 2021 in 12 journals with the highest impact in pulmonary medicine was conducted. Only original research and review articles were included. Names of the first and last authors were extracted and their genders were identified using the Gender-API web. Female authorship was described by overall distribution and distribution by country/region/continent and journal. We compared the article citations by gender combinations, evaluated the trend in female authorship, and forecasted when parity for first and last authorship would be reached. We also conducted a systematic review of female authorship in clinical medicine.
RESULTS: 14,875 articles were included, and the overall percentage of female first authors was higher than last authors (37.0% vs 22.2%, p<0.001). Asia had the lowest percentage of female first (27.6%) and last (15.2%) authors. The percentages of female first and last authors increased slightly over time, except for a rapid increase in the COVID-19 pandemic periods. Parity was predicted in 2046 for the first authors and 2059 for the last authors. Articles with male authors were cited more than articles with female authors. However, male-male collaborations significantly decreased, whereas female-female collaborations significantly increased.
CONCLUSIONS: Despite the slow improvement in female authorship over the past decade, there is still a substantial gender disparity in female first and last authorship in high-impact medical journals in pulmonary medicine.

Gender inequality across the world has been associated with a higher risk to mental health problems and lower academic achievement in women compared to men. We also know that the brain is shaped by nurturing and adverse socio-environmental experiences. Therefore, unequal exposure to harsher conditions for women compared to men in gender-unequal countries might be reflected in differences in their brain structure, and this could be the neural mechanism partly explaining women\'s worse outcomes in gender-unequal countries. We examined this through a random-effects meta-analysis on cortical thickness and surface area differences between adult healthy men and women, including a meta-regression in which country-level gender inequality acted as an explanatory variable for the observed differences. A total of 139 samples from 29 different countries, totaling 7,876 MRI scans, were included. Thickness of the right hemisphere, and particularly the right caudal anterior cingulate, right medial orbitofrontal, and left lateral occipital cortex, presented no differences or even thicker regional cortices in women compared to men in gender-equal countries, reversing to thinner cortices in countries with greater gender inequality. These results point to the potentially hazardous effect of gender inequality on women\'s brains and provide initial evidence for neuroscience-informed policies for gender equality.

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