Congratulations everyone on wrapping up another course in our journey toward completing our master’s programs! Like others have noted, the learning in this course was both meaningful and challenging. I found that I was able to engage more actively with the readings and activity posts during the first half of the course compared to the latter half, which left me feeling both guilty and frustrated by the realities of time pressure. Once I fell behind, catching up felt almost im

The landmark Women’s Health Initiative (WHI ) was a large U.S. trial that, in 2002, reported that certain types of menopausal hormone therapy slightly increased some health risks, however, the way those results were analyzed and publicized led to a much more frightening message than the data justified (Vogel, 2017). Claims about breast cancer and “HRT being dangerous” led to a frenzy of misinformation and sensationalized risk framing by the media. Media headlines oversimplifi

The topic I would like to focus on for my health promotion learning journey is women and dementia: The hidden inequity in dementia risk. What do you know about this health promotion topic to date? The number of Canadians living with dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), is climbing rapidly — and women are disproportionately affected. A mix of biological, hormonal, and social factors places women at significantly higher risk as they age. In 2020, women accounted for ro

The Ottawa Charter has been touted as the guiding vision for health promotion. The field of health promotion, however, has expanded significantly on a global scale since the Charter was first developed back in 1986. Scholars have critiqued the framework for several reasons. Public Health Ontario (2023) describe the following shortcomings: The Global Health Promotion Conference included 38 industrialized countries, with exclusive focus on the needs of those countries. Indigeno

This week has certainly challenged my thinking and comprehension surrounding the Ottawa Charter and its five action areas. In exploring whether some actions might be more or less important, several nuanced arguments emerged. A consistent theme in the literature is that these action areas were intentionally designed to be interdependent rather than hierarchical (Potvin & Jones, 2011). Nonetheless, it is tempting to rank the areas. As others have noted, I would also agree that

This is my first time writing a positionality statement, and the process has been deeply enlightening. I'm appreciative of my peers for openly sharing their experiences, values, and vulnerabilities. I understand that some aspects of positionality are fixed, while others are contextual and can change over time. This fluid state underscores the importance of engaging in ongoing self-reflection and reflexive approaches (Holmes, 2020). I’m beginning to grasp the influence of my g