Scientists In Joint Research Conclude Gender Diversity Still Insufficient In Health Research
Gender diversity is still not sufficiently recorded in health research. Scientists from the Institute for Public Health and Nursing Research at the University of Bremen have developed a handout on how gender can be better recorded in surveys.
How can gender diversity be better recorded in health research? A team led by health scientists Gabriele Bolte and Sophie Horstmann from the Institute for Public Health and Nursing Research at the University of Bremen, from the Gender and Science working group at Humboldt University in Berlin and from the Gender Medicine department at Radboud University in Nijmegen is working on this question .
In quantitative health research, for example in epidemiological studies, gender has usually only been recorded in a simplified way. “Gender is a frequently used variable in health research, but it is usually limited to a simple distinction between “male” and “female”,” explains Professor Gabriele Bolte from the Institute for Public Health and Nursing Research (IPP) at the University of Bremen and head of the DIVERGesTOOL project . “However, this is not sufficient to examine the interaction of the different dimensions of gender and to understand the connections between gender diversity and health.”
Questionnaire and recommendations for recording gender diversity developed
“For the development of gender-equitable health offers, there is currently a great need for differentiated recording, i.e. taking into account the diversity within the groups of “women”, “men” and other gender identities,” emphasizes Gabriele Bolte.
“With the new toolbox, handout, we are now giving researchers something they can use to deal more intensively with the recording of gender diversity. The developed questionnaire items, key questions and tips are intended to support the development and use of suitable survey instruments for one’s own research,” adds Sophie Horstmann, research associate at the IPP in the DIVERGesTOOL project.
About the DIVERGesTOOL project
The Federal Ministry of Health has been funding the DIVERGesTOOL project (toolbox for the operationalization of gender diversity in research on health care, health promotion and prevention) since May 2020. In this interdisciplinary research project, led by Professor Gabriele Bolte, the Department of Social Epidemiology at the Institute for Public Health and Nursing Research at the University of Bremen works closely with the Gender and Science working group at the Humboldt University in Berlin and the Gender Medicine department at the Radboud University in Nijmegen .
The researchers investigated how gender diversity and the various dimensions of gender can be made measurable. Together with representatives of large epidemiological studies in Germany and the health monitoring of the Robert Koch Institute, they have developed a set of standardized questions and further recommendations for surveys in Germany for the first time in order to adequately record gender in quantitative health research. Representatives of the federal trans* association and the association for intersex people eV were invited to evaluate the proposals.