Sex- and Gender-specific Analysis in Orthopaedic Studies

Area of Science:

• Orthopaedic Surgery
• Medical Research Methodology
• Gender Studies in Medicine

Background:

• Orthopaedic studies often report outcomes for male and female patients but rarely evaluate gender-specific injury patterns or treatment results.
• Understanding gender-related differences is crucial for personalizing treatment and improving patient outcomes in orthopaedics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the proportion of orthopaedic studies published in 2016 that included sex- or gender-specific analyses.
• To assess if these analyses found outcome differences between male and female patients.
• To evaluate variations in the proportion of gender-specific analyses across orthopaedic subspecialty and general journals.

Main Methods:

• Review of 712 studies from six leading orthopaedic journals (general and subspecialty) published in 2016.
• Analysis of studies including clinical randomized controlled, cohort, and case-control designs with female participants.
• Stratification of studies based on the inclusion of gender as a variable in statistical models and comparison of patient demographics and outcomes.

Main Results:

• Women constituted 55% of the analyzed patient population (24,607,597 total patients).
• Only 34% of studies incorporated gender as a variable in multifactorial statistical models.
• Of those studies with gender-specific analyses, 39% reported significant outcome differences between men and women.

Conclusions:

• A significant proportion of orthopaedic studies do not perform gender-specific analyses, despite the high percentage of female patients.
• The finding that over one-third of gender-specific analyses reveal outcome differences underscores their importance.
• Further research is needed to establish guidelines for when gender-specific analyses are necessary to optimize orthopaedic care for all patients.