5TH GLOBAL WOMEN’S HEALTH INDEX REPORT IDENTIFIES CONCERNING DROP IN AUSTRALIAN BREAST CANCER SCREENING Researchers, industry and patients with lived experience attend screening of breast cancer documentary to launch report
With
Professor Bruce Mann
Specialist Breast Surgeon;
Head of Breast Surgical Research,
The Royal Melbourne Hospital &
Director of Research, Breast Cancer Trials &
Professor of Surgery,
University of Melbourne
Kensi Naicker,
General Manager, Hologic Australia & New Zealand
Lynette Bolton, 46
Diagnosed with fast-growing, triple negative breast cancer
SEGMENT
Filmed in Sydney | July 2026
The Hologic Global Women’s Health Index is one of the largest global reports dedicated exclusively to women’s health and wellbeing. Now in its fifth year, the Index tracks women’s health across five dimensions , Preventive Care, Emotional Health, Opinions of Health and Safety, Basic Needs and Individual Health – across 144 countries and territories, covering 97 per cent of the global adult population.
Launched this week to coincide with Conquering Breast Cancer – a new Australian documentary featuring survivors, advocates and clinicians, the Year 5 report is based on surveys conducted in 2024, by telephone and in person, with nearly 145,000 women and men aged 15+, commissioned by Hologic, and conducted by Gallup. In Australia, the survey sampled 1,000 respondents aged 15+, including boys, girls, men and women.
The Index provides decision-makers, researchers and advocates with timely, comprehensive data on women’s health and wellbeing worldwide, offering a vital benchmark for understanding where, and why, women struggle with healthcare and other basic necessities.
The drivers behind Australia’s decline are complex but increasingly clear. Women are 35 per cent more likely than men to delay or skip medical care, driven not only by individual choice, but by structural and gender-based inequities affecting access, affordability and autonomy. (1,2)
Cost-of-living pressures are compounding the issue. The Index’s Basic Needs score has fallen from 92 in Year 1 to 84 in Year 5 – one of the steepest declines across all dimensions.1 Australian women are also more stressed, worried, angry and sad than they were in Year 1 – with 52 per cent reporting feeling stressed for much of the previous day, and 41 per cent experiencing worry. (3)
Sources:
1. Gebreyes K, Dhar A, Bhatt J, Gerhardt W, Korenda L. What’s causing US women to skip or delay medical care? Life Sciences & Health Care: Deloitte; 2024. Available from:
https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/health-care/why-women-skip-or-delay-health-care.html.
2. Rata Mohan DS, Jawahir S, Manual A, Abdul Mutalib NE, Mohd Noh SN, Ab Rahim I, et al. Gender differences in health-seeking behaviour: insights from the National Health and Morbidity Survey 2019. BMC Health Serv Res. 2025;25(1):90
3. The Hologic Global Women’s Health Index: Australia. Hologic & Gallup; 2026.
Source: Adapted from media release
-
Health-Tech Connections
Challenges in health care delivery have compounded, with clinical staff being exposed to the Omicron COVID variant. Reduced staffing has brought on its challenges to most already-strained state health care systems and the people working in them.
However, over the past 2 years of the pandemic, technology has played an increasing role on the front end for patients and consumers at home and clinicians in the medical setting. Much more is planned in technology that will deliver efficiency, reduce risk and make available new models of care. This has the potential to touch the working lives of all stakeholders and
recipients of care. -
Continuity of Care under COVID-19
Series 3, Episode 1
Under the COVID-19 pandemic, the Australian Healthcare system has handled the public health crisis by monitoring and responding to challenges in supply chains, testing & tracing of new infections and stock piling of essential equipment.
The public has largely responded by practising social distancing, understanding how hand hygiene can spread contagion and recently installing the COVIDSafe mobile application. Public health messaging has been largely effective and literacy improve, to combat the dangers of misinformation.
To open up access to medical advice during the pandemic, in March the Australian government issued MBS item codes for telehealth consultations, for advanced practice nurses as well as GPs and other specialists.
According to AMA President Dr Tony Bartone, as of mid-May 2020, around 10 million Medicare-funded telehealth services have been provided, either over the phone or via video, a significant majority of which have been provided by GPs and other specialists since the Medicare telehealth items were introduced in March.
However in recent months, the health system has mounting concerns on:
- a reduction in general practice visits for testing, investigation or immunisation
- lower rates of elective procedures resuming since being halted
- reduction in laboratory testing
- reduction in treatments and diagnosis of chronic and acute conditions
- access to, and continuing to take medications
Those with pre-existing conditions have been urged to keep appointments and routine treatments to maintain their health.
Industry has taken action such as the newly formed Continuity of Care Collaboration (CCC). The 15 health organisations forming CCC are an Australian first national communication collaboration of Peak Bodies, Industry and Healthcare Organisations coming together to stress the importance for people to continue monitoring their health and maintaining their regular care.
This Australian Health Journal episode on the continuity of care was produced with commentary from the following health industry associations and organisations: APNA – Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association, RACGP, Medical Technology Association of Australia (MTAA), West Cessnock Medical Practice, Consumers Health Forum of Australia, Medicines Australia
-
The focus on reducing instances of birth-trauma through trauma-informed care
Leading into Birth Trauma Week 2026, in an interview with Australian Health Journal, Dr Nisha Khot, President of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG), highlighted the growing focus on reducing birth trauma through trauma-informed, multidisciplinary care.
