The Editorial Board of Women's Health Issues recently announced that the Charles E. Gibbs Leadership Prize for the best papers published in Women's Health Issues in 2017 was awarded to two authors: Soumitra S. Bhuyan, PhD, MPH, an Assistant Professor in the Division of Health Systems Management and Policy at the University of Memphis School of Public Health, and Maeve Ellen Wallace, PhD, a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Global Community Health and Behavioral Sciences at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.
The Charles E. Gibbs Leadership Prize is awarded annually to recognize excellence in research on women's health care or policy. Priority is given to manuscripts that report the results of original research and that improve understanding of an important women's health issue. Members of the staff and Editorial Board of Women's Health Issues are not eligible.
“The Gibbs Prize ordinarily goes to just one author each year, but the Editorial Board found both of these studies to be both methodologically strong and highly relevant to current issues,” said Amita Vyas, Editor-in-Chief of Women' Health Issues. “We congratulate Soumitra Bhuyan, Maeve Wallace, and their colleagues on their excellent work.”
Bhuyan's manuscript, “Does Cost-Related Medication Nonadherence among Cardiovascular Disease Patients Vary by Gender? Evidence from a Nationally Representative Sample,” was published in Women's Health Issues Volume 27, Issue 1 (January/February 2017).
In this study, Bhuyan and his colleagues used 2011-2014 data from the National Health Interview Survey to examine cost-related medication nonadherence among women and men with cardiovascular disease who had used a prescription medication in the last 12 months. The outcome measure was a composite of cost-related medication nonadherence if any of the following were reported: skipped medication doses to save money, took less medication to save money, and delayed prescription filling to save money. The study found that women were significantly more likely than men to report any of the types of cost-related nonadherence in the composite score. They also report that among all CVD patients, having no insurance, being in a poorer health, and being a current smoker were associated with cost-related nonadherence. The authors call for more support and closer monitoring of cost-related medication nonadherence for disadvantaged groups, especially women with limited resources.
Wallace's manuscript, “The Status of Women's Reproductive Rights and Adverse Birth Outcomes,” was published in Women's Health Issues Volume 27, Issue 2 (March/April 2017). This study focused on the relationship between state laws that affect women and girls' access to comprehensive reproductive-health services and two adverse birth outcomes, preterm birth and low birthweight. Wallace and her colleagues developed a reproductive-rights composite index involving six policies that address access to abortion, eligibility for Medicaid family planning services, and sex education in schools, and scored each state based on the policies that were in effect in 2011. After adjusting for several factors that can affect birth outcomes, the authors found that women in states in the lowest tertile for reproductive rights had greater odds of preterm birth and low birthweight in the following year when compared to women in states in the highest tertile. “States that support and promote women's abilities and resources to make reproductive decisions for themselves and their families have healthier maternal and child populations,” the authors report.
Read more about the papers and past winners of the Charles E. Gibbs Leadership Prize