Under-representation of women in high-impact published clinical cancer research.
Cancer
; 115(14): 3293-301, 2009 Jul 15.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-19507175
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Adequate representation of women in research has been deemed essential.METHODS:
Cancer research published in 8 journals in 2006 was reviewed. The percentage of women among study participants was compared with the proportion expected from population-based estimates of sex-specific cancer incidence, using binomial tests. Differences were assessed in sex distribution of participants by funding source, author sex, and focus of research with the Student t test, and in a linear regression model controlling for cancer type.RESULTS:
A total of 1534 cancer research articles were identified, of which 661 (representing 1,096,098 participants) were prospective clinical studies and were analyzed further. For all 7 non-sex-specific cancer types assessed, the majority of studies analyzed included a lower proportion of women than the proportion of women among patients having cancer of that type in the general population. Among studies focusing on cancer treatment, women constituted a significantly lower overall proportion of the participants in the analyzed studies than expected for 6 of 7 non-sex-specific cancer types (P < .001). Among non-sex-specific studies, the mean percentage of participants who were women was 38.8%. Non-sex-specific studies reporting government funding had a higher percentage of female participants (mean 41.3% vs 36.9%; P = .005). In a regression model controlling for cancer type, lack of government funding (P = .03) and focus on cancer treatment (P = .03) were found to be independent significant predictors of a lower percentage of female participants.CONCLUSIONS:
Women were under-represented as participants in recently published, high-impact studies of non-sex-specific cancers. Studies that received government funding included a higher proportion of female subjects.
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Pacientes
/
Publicações Periódicas como Assunto
/
Mulheres
/
Pesquisa Biomédica
/
Fator de Impacto de Revistas
/
Financiamento Governamental
/
Oncologia
Tipo de estudo:
Observational_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Female
/
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Cancer
Ano de publicação:
2009
Tipo de documento:
Article