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Edited by Chloe E. Bird and Patricia P. Rieker
228 pp, $85.25
New York, NY, Cambridge University Press, 2008
ISBN-13: 978-0-5218-6415-2

JAMA. 2008;300(8):968.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Sociologists Chloe Bird and Patricia Rieker set out to "explore and explain the complex dynamics between gender and health," aiming "to enhance and deepen the understanding of the social determinants of population health" (p ix). Their ultimate goal is to reshape the research agenda on differences between men's and women's health (p xi). To accomplish these ambitious goals, they offer "a new way to think about gender and health by recognizing how the choices of individuals, families, communities, and governments can enhance or undermine health" (p 225).

The authors begin by underscoring sex disparities in health, which they characterize variously as puzzling and paradoxical: while women in developed countries such as the United States enjoy a longer life expectancy than men, women also experience higher morbidity rates. Bird and Rieker call attention to what they see as a false dichotomy of explanations of sex differences in health: exclusively (or nearly . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Laurence B. McCullough, PhD, Reviewer
Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas
mccullou@bcm.edu