32 min
Global Health Equity: Women, Power, and Cancer: A Lancet Commission Social Determinants of Health in Cancer Care
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- Medicine
In this episode, guest host, Dr. Christopher Cross, Director of Global Health Equity Strategies at ASCO moderates a discussion with the Dr. Ophira Ginsburg Co-Author of the Lancet Commission on women, power, and cancer and Dr. Julie Gralow, an advisor to the Commission. Dr. Ginsburg and Dr. Gralow share their insight into social determinants of health in cancer and prevention among women and global efforts underway to advance health equity.
TRANSCRIPT
The guest on this podcast episode has no disclosures to declare.
Dr. Christopher Cross: Welcome to ASCO's Social Determinants of Health in Cancer Care Podcast. I'm Dr. Christopher Cross, Director of Global Health Equity Strategies at ASCO.
I'm joined by Dr. Ophira Ginsburg, Senior Advisor for Clinical Research Center for Global Health at the National Cancer Institute, and Dr. Julie Gralow, Chief Medical Officer, and Executive Vice President of ASCO.
In this episode, we will discuss social determinants of health, focusing on women, cancer, and prevention. Thank you both for being a part of our podcast, we're excited to have you on.
Dr. Ophira Ginsburg: Thanks so much. My pleasure.
Dr. Julie Gralow: Thanks, Chris.
Dr. Christopher Cross: So, we'd like to start the conversation with asking our guests, how do you define social determinants of health and cancer care?
Dr. Ophira Ginsburg: Well, social determinants of health, according to the World Health Organization, I'm sure as you know, is really looking at a person's background that leads them to health inequities or health inequality. So, it has to do with the conditions under which people are born, how they develop, grow, live, work, age, and all the sort of forces and systems that shape their daily living conditions.
With respect to the interaction of women and cancer with respect to the social determinants of health, as we put forward in our commission report, really, gender has an influence on all of these factors. And not just gender, but the other intersectional aspects of a person's identity that can serve to compound and influence in a negative way their opportunities to understand what their risks of cancer are, to avoid those risks, to seek and obtain respectful, prompt, timely quality cancer health services.
And this also influences the way in which women interact with the health systems for cancer as care providers, whether it's clinicians, et cetera, or also, is the unpaid caregivers, as we sometimes call them, informal workforce. There's nothing informal about it.
Dr. Julie Gralow: And I would agree with the Ophira's definition. I think of it as the environment in which people are born, live, learn, and work, and how it impacts health.
And so, that can include economic stability, education access and quality, healthcare access and quality, the neighborhood and the environment in which the person lives. And then the social community context, the family, the relationships, all of those can combine to impact health.
Dr. Christopher Cross: Thank you for those responses. What does social determinants of health for women mean at a global level, Dr. Ginsburg?
Dr. Ophira Ginsburg: Global is local. So, we see social determinants of health, and by the way, also commercial determinants of health, which would be wrong not to include in this discussion as greatly impacting the aspects of opportunities to seek and prevent cancer, et cetera, everything we just discussed; this happens also on a global level.
So, as we show in our commission report where a woman lives does greatly influence cancer incidents, mortality, survival, and also, very importantly, who that woman is in her community. Whether she's living in a circumstance situation or there are identity factors that render her structurally marginalized will impact also on her lived experience of cancer.
And we have nine stories that highlight and offer some human aspect to what people are going through, whether they're care providers or women l
In this episode, guest host, Dr. Christopher Cross, Director of Global Health Equity Strategies at ASCO moderates a discussion with the Dr. Ophira Ginsburg Co-Author of the Lancet Commission on women, power, and cancer and Dr. Julie Gralow, an advisor to the Commission. Dr. Ginsburg and Dr. Gralow share their insight into social determinants of health in cancer and prevention among women and global efforts underway to advance health equity.
TRANSCRIPT
The guest on this podcast episode has no disclosures to declare.
Dr. Christopher Cross: Welcome to ASCO's Social Determinants of Health in Cancer Care Podcast. I'm Dr. Christopher Cross, Director of Global Health Equity Strategies at ASCO.
I'm joined by Dr. Ophira Ginsburg, Senior Advisor for Clinical Research Center for Global Health at the National Cancer Institute, and Dr. Julie Gralow, Chief Medical Officer, and Executive Vice President of ASCO.
In this episode, we will discuss social determinants of health, focusing on women, cancer, and prevention. Thank you both for being a part of our podcast, we're excited to have you on.
Dr. Ophira Ginsburg: Thanks so much. My pleasure.
Dr. Julie Gralow: Thanks, Chris.
Dr. Christopher Cross: So, we'd like to start the conversation with asking our guests, how do you define social determinants of health and cancer care?
Dr. Ophira Ginsburg: Well, social determinants of health, according to the World Health Organization, I'm sure as you know, is really looking at a person's background that leads them to health inequities or health inequality. So, it has to do with the conditions under which people are born, how they develop, grow, live, work, age, and all the sort of forces and systems that shape their daily living conditions.
With respect to the interaction of women and cancer with respect to the social determinants of health, as we put forward in our commission report, really, gender has an influence on all of these factors. And not just gender, but the other intersectional aspects of a person's identity that can serve to compound and influence in a negative way their opportunities to understand what their risks of cancer are, to avoid those risks, to seek and obtain respectful, prompt, timely quality cancer health services.
And this also influences the way in which women interact with the health systems for cancer as care providers, whether it's clinicians, et cetera, or also, is the unpaid caregivers, as we sometimes call them, informal workforce. There's nothing informal about it.
Dr. Julie Gralow: And I would agree with the Ophira's definition. I think of it as the environment in which people are born, live, learn, and work, and how it impacts health.
And so, that can include economic stability, education access and quality, healthcare access and quality, the neighborhood and the environment in which the person lives. And then the social community context, the family, the relationships, all of those can combine to impact health.
Dr. Christopher Cross: Thank you for those responses. What does social determinants of health for women mean at a global level, Dr. Ginsburg?
Dr. Ophira Ginsburg: Global is local. So, we see social determinants of health, and by the way, also commercial determinants of health, which would be wrong not to include in this discussion as greatly impacting the aspects of opportunities to seek and prevent cancer, et cetera, everything we just discussed; this happens also on a global level.
So, as we show in our commission report where a woman lives does greatly influence cancer incidents, mortality, survival, and also, very importantly, who that woman is in her community. Whether she's living in a circumstance situation or there are identity factors that render her structurally marginalized will impact also on her lived experience of cancer.
And we have nine stories that highlight and offer some human aspect to what people are going through, whether they're care providers or women l
32 min