Differences In Gender Proportions Research Articles

Gender differences in google scholar representation and impact: an empirical analysis of political communication, journalism, health communication, and media psychology

Improving gender equality in top-tier scholars and addressing gender bias in research impact are among the significant challenges in academia. However, extant research has observed that lingering gender differences still undermine female scholars. This study examines the recognition of female scholars through Google Scholar data in four different subfields of communication, focusing on two pressing issues: (1) gender representation among the most cited scholars and (2) gender differences in citations. Our findings demonstrate significant differences in gender proportions among the most cited scholars across all subfields, but especially in Political Communication and Journalism. The regression analysis revealed significant differences in citation scores in Political Communication, Journalism, and the pooled sample. However, results revealed that gender differences in research impact were not statistically significant in Health Communication and Media Psychology. Our study advocates for shifts in the citing behavior of communication scholars, emphasizing the importance of actively recognizing and citing studies conducted by female researchers to drive advancements in communication research.

2015-2021 Industry Payments to Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgeons: Analysis of Trends and Characteristics of Top-earning Surgeons.

Analysis of industry payments to pediatric orthopaedic surgeons last occurred in 2017. We investigated payments to pediatric orthopaedic surgeons from 2015 to 2021 to understand surgeon characteristics associated with increased industry payments. Open Payments Database datasets from 2015 to 2021 were queried for nonresearch payments to pediatric orthopaedic surgeons. Annual aggregates and subcategories were recorded. For surgeons receiving payments in 2021, the Hirsch index (h-index), gender, and US census division were found using the Scopus database, Open Payments Database, and online hospital profiles, respectively. χ 2 , Fisher exact, Mann-Whitney U , and t tests were used to compare surgeons in the top 25%, 10%, and 5% payment percentiles to the bottom 75%, 90%, and 95%, respectively. Payments rose 125% from 2015 to 2021. Education, royalties, and faculty/speaker increased most, while travel/lodging, honoraria, charitable contributions, and ownership interest decreased. Only royalties increased from 2019 to 2021. In 2021, of 419 pediatric orthopaedic surgeons receiving industry payments, men received greater median aggregate payments than women ($379.03 vs. $186.96, P =0.047). There were no differences in gender proportions between the top 75% and bottom 25% ( P =0.054), top 10% and bottom 90% ( P =0.235), and top 5% and bottom 95% ( P =0.280) earning comparison groups. The h-index was weakly positively correlated with industry payments ( rs =0.203, P <0.001). Mean h-indices in the 75th ( P <0.001, 95% CI: 2.62-7.65), 90th ( P =0.001, 95% CI: 3.28-13.03), and 95th ( P =0.005, 95% CI: 4.25-21.11) percentiles were significantly higher. Proportions of surgeons from the Middle Atlantic and West South Central in the 90th ( P =0.025) and 95th percentiles ( P =0.033), respectively, were significantly lower compared to all other regions. A higher proportion of surgeons from the Pacific were placed in the 90th ( P =0.004) and 95th ( P =0.024) percentiles. Industry payments to pediatric orthopaedic surgeons rose from 2015 to 2021. Most categories fell from 2019 to 2021, which may be related to the SARS-CoV-19 pandemic. In 2021, though gender was not related to aggregate payment percentile, location in select US census divisions and h-index was. Level II-Retrospective study.

Differential cognitive and functional performance in racial and ethnic groups when stratified by consensus diagnosis: Findings from the NACC dataset

AbstractBackgroundRecent studies comparing non‐Hispanic Whites (NHW) to non‐Hispanic Blacks (NHB) with cognitive impairment found differences in associations between neuropsychological performance and ratings of daily function. Evaluating differences in these relationships by race and ethnicity may be important to interpreting disparities in clinical research outcomes for people with Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders.MethodWe compared demographic and performance variables across consensus diagnostic groups (CN, impaired‐not‐MCI, MCI, or dementia) at baseline in NHB (N = 1,609; 15.62%), Hispanic (N = 706, 6.86%) and NHW (N = 7,984,77.52%) adults in the NACC cohort, using data from Version 3.0 of the UDS, collected at the 37 NIA‐ADRCs from March 2015 to June 2022 (alz.washington.edu). Spearman’s rank correlation examined the associations between CDR‐GS, MoCA, and FAS scores by race and ethnicity within consensus diagnostic groups.ResultAmong 10,299 participants, 5,964 (57.91%) were women, mean age at baseline was 69.34 (±9.80), and mean education was 16.02 (±2.81) years. Significant differences in gender proportions between race and ethnic groups were observed. NHB had a higher proportion of female participants (χ2 = 233.39 &lt;.0001); and reported the lowest FAS scores (Z = 200.67, P &lt; .001). Hispanic participants had completed fewer years of education (Z = 3999.92, p = &lt;.0001); and reported higher depressive symptoms (Z = 39.81, p = &lt;.0001). Significant correlations were observed between all assessments by race and ethnic groups. When stratified by consensus group, in the NHW and NHB subsamples, CDR and MoCA scores associations were significant except in the “Impaired not MCI” groups. In the Hispanic subsample, significant correlations were only observed in the dementia group. After adjusting for the effects of GDS scores, correlations retained significance except in the NHB MCI group. Significant correlations between CDR and FAS scores were observed except in the “Impaired not MCI” group in the Hispanic subsample. These associations were retained after controlling for depressive symptoms except in the Hispanic MCI group.ConclusionAssociations between cognitive and functional performance measures varied by racial and ethnic group when stratified by consensus groups in the NACC dataset. Specific ethnic, racial and socio‐cultural factors, as well as implicit/explicit examiner bias that may drive differences in performance warrant further study.

Using the Gini coefficient for assessing heterogeneity within classes and schools

This study demonstrates that the Gini coefficient works as a dispersion measure for gauging educational heterogeneity in and between classrooms and schools. The method for this is to compare Gini coefficients for empirical data from various areas such as gender proportions in upper secondary school programmes and dispersion in achievement within classroom and between schools. The main results are that the Gini coefficient works for gauging heterogeneity on different statistical measurement scales and different sample sizes. An example of small sample is the nominal categories of upper secondary school study programmes, for which the Gini coefficient gauges differences in gender proportions while this sample size should be too small for several other measures of inequality and dispersion. An example of large sample of quotient scale data is two neighbour schools that mainly enrol different achievement strata from the same student cohort. Here the Gini coefficient displays the two schools’ student heterogeneity to be different. An example of moderate size sample is to explore how the teaching group heterogeneity, gauged as Gini coefficient on achievements, re-distributes from within to between classes as the same students proceed from cohesive compulsory school to the students’ individual choice of upper secondary school programmes. Since the Gini coefficient can gauge heterogeneity on small samples, a suggestion for further research is to use it for exploring the relation between strategies for classroom orchestration and levels of classroom heterogeneity, for example between teaching groups at different achievement strata.

What Are the Trends in Women's Representation Among Lead Investigators of Orthopaedic Clinical Trials?

Serving as a principal investigator for a clinical trial can bring national visibility and recognition to physicians, and it can have a substantial impact on their promotion and tenure. In the field of orthopaedics, there is a well-known gender gap in terms of representation and leadership. Examining the representation of women in clinical trial leadership may help to inform and enable the design of targeted interventions and policies to foster a more inclusive and diverse environment in clinical trial leadership. (1) What is the proportion of women principal investigators in orthopaedic clinical trials, and has this changed over time? (2) Are there trial characteristics (trial phase, status, funding source, and intervention) associated with women principal investigators? (3) What is the geographic distribution globally and regionally within the United States of clinical trials led by women principal investigators? A cross-sectional survey of clinical trials using the ClinialTrials.gov registry and results database provided by the NIH was performed on August 22, 2022. Trial characteristics included principal investigator names and gender, trial phase, type, funding source, intervention, and location (defined by continent and US Census region). Our primary outcome was the overall proportion of women orthopaedic principal investigators over time. We assessed this by comparing the proportion of women principal investigators from 2007 to 2022. Our secondary outcomes were trial characteristics (trial phase, status, funding source, and intervention) and geographic distribution (globally and within the United States) associated with women principal investigators. Baseline characteristics of the clinical trials were calculated using frequencies and percentages for categorical variables. Fisher exact tests were conducted to evaluate differences in gender proportions based on the included clinical trial characteristics. Univariate linear regression was applied to analyze trends in the annual proportion of women principal investigators over time. The overall proportion of women principal investigators was 18% (592 of 3246), and this proportion increased over the study period. Specifically, the proportion of women leading clinical trials was 13% (16 of 121) in 2007 and 22% (53 of 242) in 2022 (r2 = 0.68; p < 0.001). This trend was also observed when evaluating only US women principal investigators (r2 = 0.47; p = 0.003) and non-US women principal investigators over the study period (r2 = 0.298; p = 0.03). There was no difference in the distribution of trial phases between men and women principal investigators. Most men and women were involved in "not applicable" or Phase IV trials. Similarly, there was no difference in trial status or funding source. However, women principal investigators had a higher proportion of studies involving behavioral interventions (11% [67 of 592]) compared with men principal investigators (3% [74 of 2654]; p = 0.03). The proportion of women principal investigators over the study period by world region revealed a higher proportion of women principal investigators in Asia (23% [88 of 391]), followed by South America (24% [12 of 49]), North America (18% [306 of 1746]), and Europe (16% [136 of 833]). Among all US trials over the study period, the proportion of women principal investigators across the US Census region was Northeast (19% [62 of 329]), South (18% [90 of 488]), West (20% [97 of 492]), and Midwest (13% [22 of 168]). Although there has been a notable increase in the proportion of women principal investigators over time, the overall representation remains relatively low. The disparities observed in trial characteristics and geographic distribution of women principal investigators further emphasize the need for targeted interventions and policies to foster a more inclusive and diverse environment in clinical trial leadership. These results underscore the importance of adopting practices and strategies that foster gender equity in the leadership of orthopaedic clinical trials. By establishing mentorship and sponsorship programs, early-career women surgeons can be connected with experienced leaders, cultivating a supportive network and offering valuable career guidance. Additionally, addressing geographic disparities in the representation of women principal investigators can involve the implementation of mentorship and sponsorship programs in regions with lower representation.

The Challenge of Identifying Representative Samples in Research Involving Minority Participants

Determining participants' demographics, cognition, and functional performance by race is crucial to understanding disparities in clinical research on Alzheimer’s disease. We compared demographic and performance variables between Black/African American (B/AA; N=30; 41%) and White participants (N=43, 59%) in the UAB Alzheimer's Disease Center. Among 73 participants, 38 (52%) were women, mean age was 65.7 (SD 9.47), and mean education was 16 (2.31) years. Significant differences in gender proportions across race groups were observed. B/AA women represented 70 % of their race group, white women represented 39.5 %. There were no statistically significant differences in age, education, cognitive or functional severity, reasons to participate in research, referral source, objective measures of cognition, or informant-rated daily function by race group. In conclusion, despite 50% oversampling of B/AA participants compared to the State population, no differences in cognitive and functional performance at the time of enrollment were associated with race.

The gender gap in European neurosurgical conference presentations.

Within neurosurgery, there are fewer women than men at all levels. The authors aimed to assess whether opportunities and representation within neurosurgery are proportional to the existing gender gap. The authors analyzed the program of the 2019 joint European Association of Neurosurgical Societies (EANS)/Society of British Neurological Surgeons (SBNS) conference to assess the proportions of presentations given through abstract submission and invitation by men and women. They compared proportions to the previous joint conference in 2007 and to the gender proportions of board-certified European neurosurgeons. Women delivered 75/577 (13%) presentations at the 2019 EANS/SBNS conference: 54/283 (19%) abstract submissions and 21/294 (7%) invited presentations. Fifteen of 152 (10%) session chairs were women. This increased significantly from 4/121 (3%) presentations delivered by women in 2007. When only presentations given by neurosurgeons (residents or consultants) were analyzed, the proportion of female speakers increased from 1/111 (1%) in 2007 to 60/545 (11%) in 2019. Pediatrics was the subspecialty with the highest proportion of invited female speakers. Across subspecialties, there were no differences in gender proportions for presentations from abstract submissions. Across the top 5 participating European countries, the proportion of female invited speakers (8%) and chairs (8%) was half the proportion of female board-certified neurosurgeons (16%). The proportion of women delivering invited presentations and chairing sessions at a European neurosurgical conference is lower than expected from the available pool of board-certified neurosurgeons. The proportion of women participating is higher through application (abstract submission) than through invitation. The higher proportion of presentations from abstract submission may reflect submission from a pool of trainees with a higher proportion of women. The authors suggest implementation of strategies that increase invited speakers from minority groups and have been shown to be effective in other disciplines, such as improving minority group representation in organizing committees.

Gender representation in U.S. biomedical informatics leadership and recognition.

This study sought to describe gender representation in leadership and recognition within the U.S. biomedical informatics community. Data were collected from public websites or provided by American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) personnel from 2017 to 2019, including gender of membership, directors of academic informatics programs, clinical informatics subspecialty fellowships, AMIA leadership (2014-2019), and AMIA awardees (1993-2019). Differences in gender proportions were calculated using chi-square tests. Men were more often in leadership positions and award recipients (P < .01). Men led 74.7% (n = 71 of 95) of academic informatics programs and 83.3% (n = 35 of 42) of clinical informatics fellowships. Within AMIA, men held 56.8% (n = 1086 of 1913) of leadership roles and received 64.1% (n = 59 of 92) of awards. As in other STEM fields, leadership and recognition in biomedical informatics is lower for women. Quantifying gender inequity should inform data-driven strategies to foster diversity and inclusion. Standardized collection and surveillance of demographic data within biomedical informatics is necessary.

Impact of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic on Authorship Gender in The Journal of Pediatrics: Disproportionate Productivity by International Male Researchers

To assess the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on authorship gender in articles submitted to The Journal of Pediatrics. Using gender-labeling algorithms and human inspection, we inferred the gender of corresponding authors of original articles submitted in January-February and April-May of 2019 and 2020 noting those articles related to the COVID-19 pandemic. We used Pearson χ2 tests to determine differences in gender proportions during the selected periods in the US and internationally. We analyzed 1521 original articles. Submissions increased 10.9% from January-February 2019 to January-February 2020 and 61.6% from April-May 2019 to April-May 2020. Women accounted for 56.0% of original articles in April-May 2019 but only 49.8% of original articles in April-May 2020. Original articles focused on COVID-19 represented a small percentage of additional articles submitted in January-February 2020 (1/33 or 3.0%) and (53/199 or 26.6%) in April-May 2020 compared with the number of submissions in the same months in 2019. International male corresponding authors submitted a significantly larger proportion of original articles compared with international female corresponding authors in April-May 2020 compared to April-May 2019 (P=.043). There was no difference in corresponding author gender proportion in the US (US in April-May of 2020 vs April-May of 2019; P=.95). There was no significant difference in final dispositions based on corresponding author gender for original articles from 2019 and 2020 (P=.17). Original article submissions to The Journal increased in April-May 2020, with the greatest increase by international male corresponding authors. The majority of the submission growth was not related to COVID-19.

Alcohol Intoxication and Suicide by Hanging in Poland.

An integral part of the World Health Organization (WHO) plan to reduce suicide by 10% by 2020 is to identify areas and demographic groups, which should be priority target groups for preventive activities. This study aimed to present the demographic differences between victims of suicide by hanging in the Warsaw metropolitan area, in Poland, by examining the sobriety of victims. Data for analysis were obtained from the documentation of the Department of Forensic Medicine (DFM) at the Medical University of Warsaw (MUW). The retrospective analysis included 358 out of 466 victims of suicides by hanging in the Warsaw metropolitan area, in Poland, recorded in the DFM documentation covering 2011-2013. The data gathered included age, gender, the cause of death, a post-mortem examination as well as the level of ethanol in the blood and muscles of victims. In both groups, men accounted for a larger percentage of victims than women, P=0.068. In the no-alcohol group, the victims were older than in the alcohol group (47.52±19.21 vs. 40.88±12.77) (P<0.001). The majority of the studied population were victims aged 25-34 (22.90%), mainly men (20.95%). Young men were also the largest group among victims in the alcohol group (28.33%). The most numerous age group among no-alcohol group were older victims aged 55-64 (19.10%), especially men (16.29%). Regardless of sobriety, men were the largest group of suicide victims in the study population, which means that men die suicide more often than women. Differences in gender proportions are related to age. In the studied population, it was primarily young victims, mainly men. These are the groups that should be priority target groups for preventive activities aimed at reducing the number of suicides. The presence of ethanol in more than half of the victims of suicide in the study population indicates that alcohol is an important suicidal risk factor.

The influence of learning style on satisfaction and learning effectiveness in the asynchronous web-based learning system

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of user’s learning style (including accommodators, divergers, convergers, and assimilators) on user’s satisfaction on the web-based learning system and their learning effectiveness.Design/methodology/approachThis experimental research used the college students from a technology institute in Taiwan as the subject sources. By using the Kolb’s learning style model, the students are classified as four types of learners: convergers, divergers, assimilators, and accommodators. The authors analyzed the relationships among the different learning styles with their effectiveness of learning and satisfaction of using the web-based learning system. The mediation effect of gender is also presented.FindingsThis research indicates that: first, the satisfaction of the web-based learning system has significant influence on the learning performance of learners; second, different learning styles learners have no significant effect to the satisfaction on using the web-based learning system; third, learning effectiveness has significant difference among different learning style learners on the web-based learning system; the learning effectiveness of accommodators and divergers was significantly higher than the assimilators; fourth, different learning styles learners show significant difference in gender proportion. In addition to accommodators, whose proportion of women is higher than men, the other three learning styles’ proportions in men are higher than women.Research limitations/implicationsThis study was grounded in the Kolb’s learning style theory. The authors provide implications for academic studies in e-learning research stream that aimed at understanding the role of learning style as well as gender differences in the asynchronous web-based learning system.Practical implicationsResults from this study provided the implications for students, educators, and e-learning system designers. The design of teaching materials as well as functions of e-learning systems should take learners’ learning style into consideration to ensure the best learning outcome.Originality/valueThis study examined the students’ learning style as well as gender differences in the asynchronous web-based learning system. An experiment was conducted to ensure the data were collected in a controlled environment, thus, offer the value that most of the prior study lacks.

Endoscopic transsphenoidal surgery versus microsurgery for the resection of pituitary adenomas: a systematic review

To evaluate the efficacy and safety between endoscopic and microscopic surgery for transsphenoidal pituitary adenoma. Randomized or semi-random controlled trials comparing endoscopic with microscopic surgery for transsphenoidal pituitary adenoma and published between January 2000 and July 2013 were recruited. This meta-analysis (RevMan 5.1 software) was conducted to estimate short-term and long-term complications. Fixed random effect model or semi-random effect model was established to analyse the data. Twelve randomized or semi-random controlled trials were included in this study. Among 848 patients studied, 380 of them were treated with endoscopic and 468 were treated with microscopic. The analysis of the basic characteristics of these patients included in these studies showed that: compared with microscopic, the follow-up of patients in endoscopic group was shorter [OR = -2.29, 95%CI (-4.18, -0.39), P = 0.02], while there were no significant difference in gender proportion and the age of patients between the two groups (P > 0.05) . Also, compared with endoscopic, there was a significant addition in the incidence of diabetes insipidus [OR = 0.45, 95%CI(0.30,0.66), P < 0.0001] and other complications [OR = 0.26, 95%CI ( 0.12, 0.57), P = 0.0008] in the microscopic group, the blood loss during surgery was more [OR = -0.62, 95%CI(-1.19, 0.05), P = 0.03], the rate of complete tumor resection lower [OR = 0.61, 95%CI(0.39, 0.96), P = 0.03], and the hospitalization [OR = -1.53, 95%CI(-2.18, -0.88), P < 0.00001] was also significantly longer, there was no significant difference in the incidence of cerebrospinal fluid leakage, operation time and vision improvement rate (P > 0.05). For patients with pituitary tumors, endoscopic surgery may be more suitable compared with microscopic.

The role of dexmedetomidine in treatment of serious patients in intensive care unit

To investigate the sedative and analgesic effects of dexmedetomidine in serious patients. Seventy-three patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) from June 2009 to May 2010 were in need of sedation and analgesia. They were randomly divided into dexmedetomidine group (n=35) and midazolam group (n=38). Patients in dexmedetomidine group were given a loading dose ( 1 μg/kg ) for 10 minutes and then maintained with 0.2-0.7 μg×kg(-1)×h(-1). Patients in midazolam group were given a loading dose (0.06 mg/kg) and then maintained with 0.04-0.20 mg×kg(-1) ×h(-1). Pain symptom, length of mechanical ventilation, incidence of anterograde amnesia and awakening time, and changes in blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) were compared between the two groups. There was no significant difference in gender proportion, age, or acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II (APACHE II) score between the two groups. The score of visual analog scale in dexmedetomidine group was lower than that in midazolam group (2.38±0.48 vs. 6.07±0.79, P<0.01) when intake dose was adjusted to maintain the Ramsay score of 2-4. The awakening time was shorter in dexmedetomidine group than that in midazolam group [(0.17±0.03) hours vs. (1.63±0.56) hours, P<0.01 ]. BP was lowered in 2 patients with no significant change in respiration rate in dexmedetomidine group, while BP was lowered in 7 patients with reduced respiration rate in 2 patients in midazolam group ( P<0.05). All patients in midazolam group, in contrast with 4 patients in dexmedetomidine group, had anterograde amnesia (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in length of mechanical ventilation between dexmedetomidine group and midazolam group [(5.16±1.68) hours vs. (5.21±1.56) hours, P >0.05 ]. Dexmedetomidine is the recommended drug used for sedation and analgesia in ICU.