The Hipàtia Community launches a tool to incorporate sex and gender perspectives in research content

This is a tool designed to guide researchers when considering the incorporation of sex and/or gender in studies of basic science, clinical research, healthcare services, and public health

The Hipàtia practice community has created a tool to help researchers integrate the sex/gender perspective into their studies. This tool is an abbreviated document based on a previously published guide, created at the request of the scientific community with the aim of being simpler and more user-friendly. It is designed to guide the incorporation of these concepts across various research fields: basic science, clinical research, healthcare services, and public health. Researchers from IDIAPJGol, Constanza Jaques Aviñó and Laura Medina Perucha, have collaborated on developing the questionnaire that structures this tool.

The sex/gender perspective is applied throughout the entire research cycle. This includes everything from establishing priorities and defining concepts and research questions to developing methodologies, collecting and analyzing sex and/or gender-disaggregated data, and communicating results adapted to different audiences.

The Tool

The tool consists of a checklist that helps assess the quality of sex/gender integration in health research involving humans and vertebrate animals. It includes main questions aimed at evaluating how sex/gender has been integrated into the research, sub-questions that offer examples and specific details to illustrate each aspect, and additional contributions with concrete examples of how to incorporate these elements into research.

The Hipatia Community

The Hipàtia community was created following the first Summit on Gender Equality and Female Leadership in Biomedical and Health Sciences, held in Girona on October 22, 2019. This summit involved the participation of the leadership of the main biomedical and health research centers in Catalonia, including IDIAPJGol.

Coordinated by the Catalan Agency for Quality and Health Assessment (AQuAS), the Hipatia community brings together professionals from health research institutions and key stakeholders in the Catalan research system. Its mission is to promote gender equality in health research centers and incorporate the gender perspective into scientific research content.