Gender-related variables for health research

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftTidsskriftartikelfagfællebedømt

Dokumenter

  • Nielsen, Mathias Wullum
  • Marcia Stefanick
  • Diana Peragine
  • Torsten B. Neilands
  • John P. A. Ioannidis
  • Louise Pilote
  • Judith J. Prochaska
  • Mark R. Cullen
  • Gillian Einstein
  • Ineke Klinge
  • Hanna LeBlanc
  • Hee Young Paik
  • Londa Schiebinger
Background

In this paper, we argue for Gender as a Sociocultural Variable (GASV) as a complement to Sex as a Biological Variable (SABV). Sex (biology) and gender (sociocultural behaviors and attitudes) interact to influence health and disease processes across the lifespan—which is currently playing out in the COVID-19 pandemic. This study develops a gender assessment tool—the Stanford Gender-Related Variables for Health Research—for use in clinical and population research, including large-scale health surveys involving diverse Western populations. While analyzing sex as a biological variable is widely mandated, gender as a sociocultural variable is not, largely because the field lacks quantitative tools for analyzing the influence of gender on health outcomes.
Methods

We conducted a comprehensive review of English-language measures of gender from 1975 to 2015 to identify variables across three domains: gender norms, gender-related traits, and gender relations. This yielded 11 variables tested with 44 items in three US cross-sectional survey populations: two internet-based (N = 2051; N = 2135) and a patient-research registry (N = 489), conducted between May 2017 and January 2018.
Results

Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses reduced 11 constructs to 7 gender-related variables: caregiver strain, work strain, independence, risk-taking, emotional intelligence, social support, and discrimination. Regression analyses, adjusted for age, ethnicity, income, education, sex assigned at birth, and self-reported gender identity, identified associations between these gender-related variables and self-rated general health, physical and mental health, and health-risk behaviors.
Conclusion

Our new instrument represents an important step toward developing more comprehensive and precise survey-based measures of gender in relation to health. Our questionnaire is designed to shed light on how specific gender-related behaviors and attitudes contribute to health and disease processes, irrespective of—or in addition to—biological sex and self-reported gender identity. Use of these gender-related variables in experimental studies, such as clinical trials, may also help us understand if gender factors play an important role as treatment-effect modifiers and would thus need to be further considered in treatment decision-making.
OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftBiology of Sex Differences
Vol/bind12
Udgave nummer23
ISSN2042-6410
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 22 feb. 2021

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