Background

Integrating a sex and gender lens is increasingly recognized as important in health research studies. Past failures to adequately consider sex in drug development, for example, led to medications that were metabolized differently, proved harmful, or ineffective, for females. Including both males and females in study populations is important but not sufficient; health, access to healthcare, and treatment provided are also influenced by gender, the socially mediated roles, responsibilities, and behaviors of boys, girls, women and men. Despite understanding the relevance of sex and gender to health research, integrating this lens into study designs can still be challenging. Identified here, are nine opportunities to address sex and gender and thereby strengthen research proposals.

Methods

Ontario investigators were invited to submit a draft of their health research proposal to the Sex and Gender Research Support Service (SGRSS) at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto, Ontario. The service works to build capacity on the integration of sex, gender, and other identity factors, in health research. Using the SAGER Guidelines and the METRICS for the Study of Sex and Gender in Human Participants as guides, proposals were reviewed to enhance their sex and gender considerations. Content analysis of the feedback provided these investigators was subsequently completed.

Results

Nearly 100 hundred study proposals were reviewed and investigators provided with suggestions on how to enhance their proposal. Analyzing the feedback provided across the reviewed studies revealed commonly overlooked opportunities to elevate consideration of sex and gender. These were organized into nine suggestions to mirror the sections of a research proposal.

Conclusion

Health researchers are often challenged on how to integrate a sex and gender lens into their work. Reviews completed across a range of health research studies show there are several commonly overlooked opportunities to do better in this regard. Nine ways to improve the integration of a sex and gender lens in health research proposals have been identified.

中文翻译：

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做得更好：在健康研究建议中促进性别融合的十一种方法

背景

在健康研究中，越来越多地将性别和性别视角整合在一起很重要。例如，过去在药物开发过程中未能充分考虑性别问题，导致药物代谢方式不同，被证明对女性有害或无效。在研究人群中包括男性和女性很重要，但还不够；健康，获得医疗保健和提供的治疗还受到性别，男孩，女孩，妇女和男人的社会媒介作用，责任和行为的影响。尽管了解性别对健康研究的重要性，但将这种透镜整合到研究设计中仍然具有挑战性。这里确定的是解决性别问题的九个机会，从而加强了研究建议。

方法

安省调查人员应邀向安大略省多伦多女子大学医院的性与性别研究支持服务（SGRSS）提交了他们的健康研究建议草案。该服务致力于在健康研究中整合性别，性别和其他身份因素的能力。以SAGER指南和人类参与者性别研究中的METRICS为指南，对提案进行了审查，以增强他们对性别和性别的考虑。提供给这些调查人员的反馈信息的内容分析随后完成了。

结果

审查了近100项研究计划，研究人员还提供了有关如何增强其计划的建议。通过对回顾研究中提供的反馈进行分析，发现人们普遍忽视了提高对性别的关注的机会。这些被组织成九个建议，以反映研究建议的各个部分。

结论

卫生研究人员经常面临如何将性别和性别观念纳入其工作的挑战。在一系列健康研究中完成的审查表明，有几个通常被忽略的机会可以在这方面做得更好。已经确定了九种方法来改善健康研究提案中的性别视角。