Nearly half of women neglect their own health, as they don’t have the time they need to focus on it, according to a new study from GCI Health, HealthyWomen, and Redbook magazine in the US.

In the survey, more than 1,000 women between the ages of 30 and 60 were asked about their own health habits and those they enact for their families.

Women generally make most of the healthcare arrangements for their families, but two-thirds said they only felt somewhat in control of their own health.

Taking these results into consideration, the HealthiHer movement aims to make it easier for women to take control of their own health issues.

It is doing this through a social element, health content designed especially for women and informing employers about staff health initiatives.

Wendy Lund, CEO of GCI Health, told PR Week: "This is phase one. Next month, which is women’s health month, we're putting out a lot of content. We’re also working on challenging industry leaders to help make impact with us and join us."

She continued by saying that it is not just women whose jobs are in PR that they hope to support, but also areas like nursing and teaching, which are dominated by females.

Further information gleaned from the study discovered that of those who didn’t have regular check-ups, 77 per cent stated that it was because of scheduling conflicts with their jobs.

As a result, HealthiHer reached out to employers to encourage them to enable all staff – male and female – to attend screenings and doctors’ appointments that could prevent serious health problems in the future.
There is even a social media hashtag - #BeHealthiHer – for women to share their moments of self-care with each other.

Ms Lund added: "We created #BeHealthiHer because we want to make sure we’re going as broad as we humanly can to help women on social media capture those moments where they're embracing self-care. Showing women helping women is the most effective way."