Abstract
Abstract
Purpose
In the field of health sciences gender is often confused with biological sex (male/female) or reduced to a dichotomous classification (masculinity/femininity). The concepts of sex and gender interact with each other, but they are not equivalent. According to Sandra Bem four gender typologies can be established (androgynous, masculine, feminine and undifferentiated).
A relationship has been shown to exist between gender and health. Yet, there is little evidence as to the relationship between gender typologies and adherence to the Mediterranean diet. The aim of this research is to evaluate the association between Bem’s gender typologies and adherence to the Mediterranean diet.
Methods
Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener (MEDAS) and Bem’s gender typologies were the main variables. Sex, age, socioeconomic status (SES), body mass index (BMI) and obesity were analyzed as covariates.
Results
Multilevel multivariate analysis showed that androgynous typology was associated with increased adherence to Mediterranean diet (β = 0.46 (SE 0.21), p = 0.033), adjusting by covariates, in a university population in Spain. Moreover, this was not the case with masculinity or femininity typologies.
Conclusion
Thus, the results of this study suggest (1) that androgynous typology is not only associated with better mental health but also with healthy/healthier lifestyles, and (2) the complexity of the relationship between sex-gender and health would advise researchers avoid dichotomies such as male/female or masculinity/femininity.
Funder
Universidad Europea de Madrid
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Subject
Nutrition and Dietetics,Medicine (miscellaneous)
Reference50 articles.
1. World Health Organization (WHO) (2008) Closing the gap in a generation: health equity thought action on the social determinants of health. Final report of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health. World Health Organization, Geneva
2. World Health Organization (WHO) (2022) Gender and health. Health topics. https://www.who.int/health-topics/gender#tab=tab_1. Accessed 11 May 2022
3. Lindqvist A, Gustafsson Sendén M, Renström EA (2020) What is gender, anyway: a review of the options for operationalising gender. Psychol Sexual 12(4):332–344. https://doi.org/10.1080/19419899.2020.1729844
4. Miani C, Wandschneider L, Niemann J, Batram-Zantvoort S, Razum O (2021) Measurement of gender as a social determinant of health in epidemiology—a scoping review. PLoS ONE 16(11):e0259223. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0259223
5. Ballering AV, Bonvanie IJ, Olde Hartman TC, Monden R, Rosmalen JGM (2020) Gender and sex independently associate with common somatic symptoms and lifetime prevalence of chronic disease. Soc Sci Med 253:112968. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.112968