Gender-sensitive and intersectionality-informed health indicators for health reporting: a scoping review protocol

Gender is a well-established social determinant of health and health (in)equality. Gender-sensitive health indicators for health monitoring and health reporting can support gender mainstreaming in relevant policy areas and inform strategies to promote gender equality. They generally lack theoretical approaches to explain gender inequalities in health in the context of individual, social and structural circumstances. Gender-sensitive and intersectionality-informed health indicators provide a more accurate and nuanced picture of health outcomes and risks but are often lacking. The aim of this scoping review is to map the evidence on gender-sensitive and intersectionality-informed indicators for health reporting in order to support the development of an indicator set for German Federal Health Reporting.

This scoping review follows Arksey and O'Malley's methodological framework and its extension by Levac et al and will be reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews. We will conduct a database search complemented by a backward citation search using English search terms to find research articles and grey literature (eg, reports, policy/working papers, book chapters) reporting on gender-sensitive health indicators in the context of health reporting in the European Union-27 and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development published since 2014. Electronic databases include Medline, PsycINFO, Embase, Scopus, CINAHL and Cochrane Library. Other resources include targeted searches on websites relevant to national and international health reporting and a Google Search to include further eligible literature. After removing duplicates, two reviewers will independently screen all titles/abstracts and full texts for eligibility for inclusion and extract the data from included articles using a data extraction form. The results will be synthesised both narratively and descriptively and, where appropriate, presented in tables and graphs.

No ethical approval is required for this study. Findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publication, conference presentations and meetings with relevant stakeholders in health monitoring and reporting.