Women typically manage the entire family’s health. Here’s what can make that easier
By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant
Numerous studies relate that women tend to manage their household’s health, from their kids to any elders who need assistance. From scheduling and facilitating visits to filling and administering prescriptions to keeping up with vaccinations and preventive health, most of the time, women take care of it all.
Here’s how to make that easier:
• Delegate care tasks within the family.
“Moms definitely need some support, whether from peers or other family members,” said Zendi Moldenhauer, Ph.D., pediatric nurse practitioner and board–certified in functional medicine at Arbor Health in Pittsford. “So often, moms are taking care of multiple people and multiple generations.”
Though managing the healthcare decisions, moms delegating some tasks to others can help keep all the plates spinning. For example, taking the whole crew for one child or senior’s healthcare visit can be challenging. If mom stays home with the other kids or grandma, could dad provide a ride to a healthcare visit during a lunch break or occasionally take a half day off? (Senior healthcare visits can be considerably longer than visits for children.) Perhaps dad could handle a few facets of healthcare such as administering medication in the evening and managing dental visits and eye exams.
Perhaps a trusted neighbor, longtime friend or other person could help with things such as providing a few hours of care to children or elders so mom can keep up with her own healthcare appointments. About 50% of American women either avoid or delay their routine medical care, according to a 2024 Deloitte Health Care Consumer Survey compared with only 37% of men. The survey revealed that women are 50% more likely to skimp on care compared with men because of access issues, which may include the inability to attend visits because of caregiving responsibilities. Bringing along a toddler to a Pap smear or a frail senior to a mammogram can be challenging. Staying home is easier.
“Women need to take care of their own health,” Moldenhauer said. “Moms are so busy taking care of everybody else in the family that they don’t take care of their own health. They need sleep, attend their own appointments and have self-care and down time. They shouldn’t neglect their own needs because they’re taking care of their family. They are important too.”
• Organize the information.
Moldenhauer said that whether it’s on a calendar or app, immediately recording dates and when things are due, moms need to keep track of this information.
“That helps me tremendously,” Moldenhauer said. “If I didn’t write things down, then I will lose track of the details.”
It also helps to keep health care information in one central place, such as vaccination records, allergy notes and visit printouts. Some of Moldenhauer’s patients’ moms keep a running log of illnesses and injuries. She said that this strategy is also helpful if the children have a babysitter who may need to know this information in an emergency.
Organized moms also make a list of top questions they want to ask during doctor’s visits and bring along a list of all prescriptions and medications.
• Multitask healthcare.
Schedule all the kids for the same day for eye exams, dental visits and well child check-ups. It won’t help as much when the children are very small and on different vaccination schedules. However, once they’re past the routine vaccines, multitasking helps considerably.
• Automate healthcare.
Set up prescription drug delivery, along with subscription delivery of other staples, both healthcare and non-healthcare related, such as groceries and household goods. Delivery of over-the-counter and prescribed necessities saves time on shopping trips. Reserve those now shortened trips or things that may require a more hands-on approach like selecting just the right produce. It’s also helpful to set the next routine appointment such as well child visits, annual physical and dental cleaning when checking out from these appointments. Set reminder alarms if providers don’t send automated reminders.
• Habit stack family health routines.
If it’s hard to remember to administer daily medication, perform physical therapy exercise regimens or other health-related maintenance, plan these things to take place alongside another part of your day, such as pills with breakfast or bedtime (if not contraindicated) and exercises right after lunch. Using a daily pill box can help reduce medication errors for prescription drugs. Some online pharmacies provide a daily pack of all medications, which can be handy for those taking multiple maintenance drugs.
Why Are Women Usually the Family’s Primary Healthcare Managers?
One reason behind why women do it is the disparity of healthcare use between men and women. Stereotypically, women are higher consumers of healthcare, both in caring for their health in general and because of the doctor’s appointments needed for maintaining contraceptives, monitoring pregnancy and receiving guidance through menopause. This usage may lend to more familiarity with using healthcare. Women comprise 66% of family caregivers of elders or disabled family members according to Caregiver.org and 95% of child caregivers according to the US Census Bureau.
It’s also an easy segue from obstetrical care to newborn care and eventually pediatric care and senior care. Women fulfilling the caregiver role full-time have more flexibility in their schedule to manage family healthcare. And even those who use outside help for part of their family’s caregiver needs represent the most knowledgeable family member of the care recipient’s needs.