Women's Health throughout Life Stages

Dear Colleagues,

We are organizing a Special Issue on "Women's Health Throughout Life Stages" in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IF 2.468), a peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles and communications in the interdisciplinary area of environmental health sciences and public health. For detailed information on the journal, please refer to https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph.

Substantial progress has been made in the past two decades in improving women’s health, with a substantial reduction in maternal mortality. There has also been substantial increase in the utilization of healthcare and family planning among women in some countries. However, societies, especially in limited resource settings, are still facing the heavy burden of women’s morbidity. For instance, the prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus, one of the most common pregnancy complications, has increased by more than 30% within one or two decades in a number of countries including developing countries, forming an emerging worldwide epidemic. Additionally, social, economic, and/or environmental disadvantages continue to contribute to sex disparities in women’s health.

For many diseases, women’s physiology and life-cycle hormonal changes demand important consideration when determining healthcare management options. At the same time, there are certain conditions that are more prevalent or differ in pathophysiology, symptoms and outcomes in women compared with men, and these may require special attention. Therefore, it is critical to consider both biological differences and sociocultural influences unique to women when tackling health issues and providing clinical care for women’s health conditions, including those that may be influenced by reproductive history. Moreover, interventions are needed to reduce sex inequities in healthcare access and improve quality of care.

This Special Issue seeks research papers on various aspects of women’s health such as physical and mental health issues, and healthcare access and utility throughout the lifespan in different communities and countries. In particular, we encourage submissions of interdisciplinary work and multi-country collaborative research. We welcome original research papers of different study designs as well as systematic reviews and meta-analysis. The listed keywords suggest just a few of the many possibilities.

Prof. Dr. Yuan Lin
Prof. Dr. Yeyi Zhu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.