title: Examples of sex/gender sensitivity in epidemiological research: results of an evaluation of original articles published in JECH 2006-2014.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  During the last decades, sex and gender biases have been identified in various areas of biomedical and public health research, leading to compromised validity of research findings. As a response, methodological requirements were developed but these are rarely translated into research practice. The aim of this study is to provide good practice examples of sex/gender sensitive health research.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a systematic search of research articles published in JECH between 2006 and 2014. An instrument was constructed to evaluate sex/gender sensitivity in four stages of the research process (background, study design, statistical analysis, discussion).
  
  
  RESULTS
  In total, 37 articles covering diverse topics were included. Thereof, 22 were evaluated as good practice example in at least one stage; two articles achieved highest ratings across all stages. Good examples of the background referred to available knowledge on sex/gender differences and sex/gender informed theoretical frameworks. Related to the study design, good examples calculated sample sizes to be able to detect sex/gender differences, selected sex/gender sensitive outcome/exposure indicators, or chose different cut-off values for male and female participants. Good examples of statistical analyses used interaction terms with sex/gender or different shapes of the estimated relationship for men and women. Examples of good discussions interpreted their findings related to social and biological explanatory models or questioned the statistical methods used to detect sex/gender differences.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The identified good practice examples may inspire researchers to critically reflect on the relevance of sex/gender issues of their studies and help them to translate methodological recommendations of sex/gender sensitivity into research practice.
authors.affiliation: Department Prevention and Evaluation, Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology - BIPS, Achterstr. 30, 28359, Bremen, Germany. jahn@leibniz-bips.de.
authors.forename: Ingeborg
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Jahn
authors.affiliation: Department Biometry and Data Management, Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology - BIPS, Achterstr. 30, 28359, Bremen, Germany.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Börnhorst
authors.affiliation: Department Biometry and Data Management, Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology - BIPS, Achterstr. 30, 28359, Bremen, Germany.
authors.forename: Frauke
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Günther
authors.affiliation: Department Prevention and Evaluation, Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology - BIPS, Achterstr. 30, 28359, Bremen, Germany.
authors.forename: Tilman
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Brand
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000379:methods*; D016021:Epidemiologic Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012107:Research Design / Q000592:standards; D012737:Sex Factors
keywords: Epidemiological methods; Good practice example; Sex/gender-based analysis