Translating a global gender analysis framework to improve local community health

Background: To better understand how gender influences participation in leisure-time physical activity, so that effective interventions can be designed, a gender analysis framework is needed. The Gender Analysis Framework of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, while focused on breaking down factors affecting illness, has the potential to be applied to wellness activities. The framework consists of three parts: (1) identifying who gets ill, including when and where; (2) identifying factors affecting who gets ill; and (3) identifying factors affecting responses to poor health. Methods: The established framework was translated to focus on wellness instead of illness. The steps to conduct the gender analysis were adapted to include examination of sex-disaggregated data related to wellness behaviors. Factors that had the potential to influence engagement in physical activity were examined. Results: Through translation of the Gender Analysis Framework to study wellness, disparities related to leisure-time physical activity for women in Yellowstone County were identified. The analysis identified gender-based constraints as well as gender-based opportunities for engagement in physical activity influenced by the environment, gender-specific activities, resources and gender norms. Findings were used to develop a physical activity intervention tailored to women. Conclusion: An established global framework for gender analysis can be translated from a focus on disparities related to ill-health to one on disparities related to wellness behaviors such as engagement in leisure-time physical activity in local communities. Such an analysis can then be applied to the development of a gender-specific intervention to promote physical activity in women.