Chapter 8 220 Conclusion In this chapter, I have highlighted the importance of deconstructing the concept ‘gender’ into several dimensions to study its impact on health outcomes and illness experiences of people with PD more accurately and to investigate how people are ‘doing gender’ rather than approaching gender as a unidimensional and static variable in medical research. In general, gender norms and stereotypes associated with gender identities appear to affect illness experiences and health related quality of life of people with PD more strongly than solely their gender identity. Gender norms and stereotypes can become salient in illness experiences due to disease related symptoms such as loss of physical strength and postural stability, changes in physical appearances and increased emotionality and their associations with masculinities and femininities. These motor and non-motor symptoms and their associations with masculinities and femininities are not necessarily limited to people with PD and further research is encouraged to investigate the impact of disease specific symptoms, their associations with contextual gender norms and relations that might complicate care for people with and without PD. Employing multiple methodological approaches allows for a better understanding of the complex ways in which gender dimensions influence health outcomes and illness experiences, and I have provided my perspective on how the main findings of this thesis may fit into the larger context of gender studies and person-centred care. I expect that, in the coming years, the study of gender in medicine and in different patient populations will continue to increase, which will facilitate the unravelling of the contextual relevance of gender-related aspects and its intersection with other social factors in relation to health and health outcomes. Consequently, these studies will accelerate the development of contextual care practices for patient population in general, and people with PD in particular, and the training of cultural competence in healthcare providers. Furthermore, they will enable the development of more targeted interventions that challenge intersectional gender norms and stereotypes that contribute to health inequalities between people with different gender identities. Ultimately, such interventions should aim to improve health outcomes and reduce health disparities by recognizing and addressing the impact of intersectional gender dimensions, in conjunction with and separate from, sex characteristics on health and disease.
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