Exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the health and emotional well-being of California women and girls have regressed to levels of five years ago, including declines in life expectancy and increases in the number of women reporting signs of depression, according to a report released Thursday by Mount St. Mary’s University in Los Angeles.
“What we found this year is disappointing — overall, trends in life expectancy, racial disparities in mortality and chronic disease, and women’s emotional well-being haven’t improved over the past half decade,” she wrote. MSMU President Ann McElaney-Johnson in an introduction to the report.
“In fact, they seem to be getting worse. On top of all this the effect of living in a pandemic, and we have a real problem on our hands. This is an issue we need to address now to lessen the impact it might have for years to come,” added McElaney-Johnson.
The report sought to provide an update on women’s health and wellness compared to 2017, the last time the university delved into the topic.
The researchers found that, overall, California women live longer than women nationwide and tend to live five years longer than California men.
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But life expectancy for men and women fell by 1.5 years in 2020 compared to 2019, due in large part to deaths that occurred from COVID-19, but also to increases in factors such as homicide and diabetes.
Emotional well-being has also been affected, with researchers reporting that in 2019, 19% of California women said they had been diagnosed with depression, but by 2020, more than half reported symptoms of mild to severe depression.
The report also highlighted racial disparities in health and found that black women are still more likely to die of breast or cervical cancer than Latina, white, or Asian-American women, and black women are six times more likely of dying from a pregnancy-related problem than white women.
Another major problem brought on by the pandemic was a drop in preventive health care, as people generally adhered to stay-at-home orders and avoided doctor visits.
The report noted that cervical cancer screening rates in the state have dropped by 80% due to the pandemic.
The researchers said rates have started to recover but are still below pre-pandemic levels.
The report was prepared by the MSMU Center for the Advancement of Women, which called the annual effort the “most comprehensive study focusing on issues and trends affecting the nearly 20 million women and girls living in California.” .
“In order to continue to thrive we have to give more self-compassion and change the way we see success, so that we can create more and more opportunities for future generations of women and girls,” said journalist and author Jennifer Moss during a panel discussion on the report’s findings on Thursday.
“We can take advantage of this crisis to think regarding opportunities to make a positive change in our lives, and this means organizational change in the workplace,” Moss said.
Paula Helu-Brown, assistant professor of psychology at MSMU, added, “It’s crucial to create systemic change at the policy and workplace levels that empower women to take care of their physical and emotional well-being.”
