Beyond "Women's" Health: A Natural Language Processing Analysis of Trends in Gender-Neutral Language Use.

Area of Science:

• Medical research
• Linguistic analysis
• Gender studies

Background:

• Gendered language is prevalent in medical literature.
• There is a growing need for inclusive language in healthcare, particularly in obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN).
• Understanding language trends is crucial for assessing inclusivity in scientific communication.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze trends in gendered, gender-neutral, and transgender-specific language within OB/GYN abstracts.
• To investigate the evolution of language use in OB/GYN research over time.
• To identify potential drivers for changes in language, such as journal policies and broader societal recognition of diverse populations.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study analyzing a large dataset of MEDLINE abstracts.
• Utilized natural language processing (NLP) for automated classification of abstract language.
• Included 955,626 abstracts meeting specific inclusion criteria from 4.8 million records.

Main Results:

• 59% of analyzed OB/GYN abstracts contained gendered language.
• Only 0.03% of abstracts used transgender-specific language.
• A significant increase in gender-neutral (40.6%) and transgender language was observed.
• The proportion of gender-neutral and transgender language in OB/GYN abstracts has rapidly increased.

Conclusions:

• The shift towards gender-neutral and transgender language in OB/GYN abstracts is notable.
• This trend may be influenced by evolving journal policies and a broader understanding of "women's" health.
• The findings suggest a move towards more inclusive scientific communication in OB/GYN.