Female Patient Representation Is Acceptable in Studies Regarding Hip Arthroscopy With Labral Repair Yet Deficient in...

To systematically review and examine the current literature regarding the representation of female athletes in studies examining arthroscopic hip labral repair procedures.

Studies regarding arthroscopic hip labral repair were identified in PubMed. We included human studies of all levels of evidence written in English that identified the biological sex of study participants and were conducted in the United States or non-US countries that offer the same treatment strategies available in the United States. Data regarding study population, athletic caliber, menstrual status, research theme, sample of males and females, journal impact factor, and paper Altmetric score were recorded and analyzed.

We screened 1,152 studies and identified 62 to be included in this audit. Females made up 55% of the population of participants. Female-only and male-only studies represented 4.8% and 14.5% of studies investigated, respectively. No studies investigated outcomes of female participants at the highest athletic caliber. Menstrual status was not considered or included as a variable in any study. Participants within athletic performance, indirect association, and health research theme had 32.8%, 61.1%, and 58.6% female representation, respectively. Median impact factor was similar among study population classifications. Study Altmetric score was highest among male-only studies and studies of the highest levels of athletic caliber.

Overall, there was a similar prevalence of female-to-male participants in hip labral repair research, with a 55% to 45% female-to-male ratio in all studies included in this review. Despite this, there is a lack of female-only studies, inclusion of menstrual status, high-level female athletes, and female participants evaluated for performance outcomes.

Level IV, systematic review of Level I to IV studies.