Gender Disparities in Academic Pain Medicine: A Retrospective, Cross-Sectional Bibliometric Analysis.

Abstract

This study was conducted to characterizethe gender disparities within academic pain management departments in the United States, specifically focusing on its relation to research andacademic leadership. This will allow for targeted improvements in efforts made to reduce gender gaps within academic pain medicine. This is a retrospective, cross-sectional analysis study evaluating pain management faculty of various positions at academicinstitutionsacrossthe United States. Weutilizedpublicly available data on faculty positions and sex to analyze research impact, H-index, number of publications and citations through bibliometric and linear regression analysis. Our analysis found thatfemalefaculty hadsignificantlyless research output to male faculty. The three research measurement indices used in this study including H-index, number of publications, and number of citations were significantly lower in females than in males among associate and full professor faculty ranking. Multivariable analysis did not display any significant disparities of research output at the division director and department chair level. As in many areas of medicine, there continues to be a significant gender disparity in academic pain management departments, particularly with regard to leadership positions and research impact within the field.Our study found that female pain physicians had a significantly less research output based on the three variables of H indices, number of publications, and number of citations compared to their male counterparts. This has been shown to have the impact on discrepancies in female faculty ranking. Interestingly, these variables were not significantly different between male and female faculty members of the same level of leadership except for program director. There are various contributory reasons for these disparities, including implicit biases, lack of mentorship, and familial obligations. Addressing some of these factors can help narrow theschism and promote greater gender equality within academic pain management.