Gender Gap in Cardiothoracic Surgery Randomized Controlled Trial and posthoc analysis of Randomized Controlled Trial Authorship from 2014 to 2020.

Abstract

To estimate gender disparities among first and last authorships in cardiothoracic randomized controlled trials(RCTs) and association of gender with publications in high impact journals. PubMed/MEDLINE database was searched from January 1st , 2014-December 31st , 2020 using R statistical software via "easyPubMed" package to retrieve pertinent data. The "gender" package was utilized to determine gender using the United States Social Security Administration Baby Name Data. The percentage of women first and last authors were computed along with determining the uniqueness of the names. The association of gender and publication in high impact peer-reviewed journals was delineated. Jonckheere'e trend was computed. The database search retrieved total of 4820 RCTs. Of which, gender was encoded for first author of 3247 [67%] RCTs, among which 911[28%] studies had women as first authors with a similar trend across seven years [P value 0.23]. Gender was encoded for last author of 3204 [66%] RCTs, of which 622 [19%] studies had women as last authors with a similar trend across seven years [P value 0.45]. A total of 627 studies were published in high impact factor journals, among which 79[16%] studies had women first authors and 67[13%] studies had women last authors. There is an obvious gender disparity of first and last authors in cardiothoracic surgery related RCTs with a similar trend across seven years. However, the post-hoc analysis did demonstrate a positive trend with increase in the number of female first authors demonstrating progress.