Table 1.
Global Policies and practices to Address Gender Disparities in Health, with the Scientific Community as Target Audience
| Organization | Year | Title | Main Content | Author(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Food and Drug Administration (FDA) | 1993 | Guideline for the study and evaluation of gender differences in the clinical evaluation of drugs — notice |
Guidance on the consideration and evaluation of discrepancies in medicine effectiveness and appropriateness separately in males and females | Federal Register, 2013 |
| National Institutes of Health (NIH) | 1994 | NIH guidelines on the inclusion of women and minorities as subjects in clinical research — Federal Register notice | Guidance on the inclusion of women and minorities in research | NIH |
| United Nations (UN) | 1995 | Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women | The impact on women and men should be analyzed separately prior to policy-making | UN |
| National Institutes of Health (NIH) | 2000 | Notice NOT-OD-00-048 | NIH guidelines on the inclusion of women and minorities as subjects in clinical research: guide to grants and contracts — updated version | NIH |
| Institute of Medicine (IOM) | 2001 | Exploring the Biological Contributions to Human Health: Does Sex Matter? | Explores the health impact of sex and gender, from behavioral characteristics to genetic and metabolic features | IOM |
| National Institutes of Health (NIH) | 2001 | Notice NOT-OD-02-001 | NIH policy and guidelines on the inclusion of women and minorities as subjects in clinical research: this updated version provides additional recommendations on reporting, among others, sex/gender discrepancies in effects of interventions evaluated in the context of NIH-defined Phase III clinical trials | NIH |
| Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) | 2010 | Sex, gender and health research guide: a tool for CIHR applicants | A guide to enhance all research applicants toward the integration of sex and gender in research designs | CIHR |
| Food and Drug Administration (FDA) | 2014 | FDA action plan to enhance the collection and availability of demographic subgroup data | Action plan to highlight the need of adequate representation and health-data analysis of subgroups, including among those of both sexes | FDA |
| World Health Organization (WHO) | 2015 | Integrating equity, gender, human rights and social determinants into the work of WHO: roadmap for action (2014–2019). |
A Guidance on the integration of gender-responsive sustainable approaches in WHO programs and institutional mechanisms on a national basis; B Enhance sex- and gender-disaggregated data analysis and health-inequality monitoring |
WHO |
| National Institutes of Health (NIH) | 2014 | Notice NOT-OD-14-085 | Transition plans for reporting sex/gender, race, and ethnicity information in non-competing type 5 progress reports | NIH |
| National Institutes of Health (NIH) | 2015 | Notice NOT-OD-15-102 | NIH recommends that sex as a biological variable be taken into serious consideration in research designs, analyses, and reporting in vertebrate animal and human studies, and strong evidence-based justification from the scientific literature, preliminary data, or other relevant considerations must be provided for applications where only the one sex is studied | NIH |
| United Nations (UN) |
2015 | Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s, and Adolescents’ Health (2016–2030) | An updated version of Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s, and Adolescents’ Health (2010–2015): the strategy outlined what countries and health partners need to do to end “all preventable deaths of women, children, and adolescents by 2030 and improve their health”, with a commitment made to a one-third reduction in premature mortality from NCDs and the promotion of mental health and well-being | UN, 2015a |
| United Nations (UN) |
2015 | Sustainable development goals | In all SDGs, such terms as “gender equality” and “gender-sensitive” strategies are underscored Goal 5: “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” |
UN, 2015b |
| League of European Research Universities (LERU) |
2015 | Gendered research and innovation: integrating sex and gender analysis into the research process | Provides a list of recommendations for universities, governments, funders, and peer-reviewed journals to adopt strategies and policies for a gendered research and innovation approach | LERU |
| Lancet Commission on Women and Health | 2015 | Women and health: the key for sustainable development | Highlights health challenges that women share with men, yet with manifestations that affect females disproportionally owing to biological and environmental determinants | Langer et al |
| European Commission | 2016 | H2020 programme: guidance on gender equality in Horizon 2020 | Recommendations to foster gender balance in Horizon 2020 research teams, to prevent underrepresentation of women and to integrate sex- and gender-specific analysis in research, and innovation content aiming at ameliorating the scientific quality and relevance of the knowledge produced | European Commission |
| Oxford Martin School | 2016 | Women’s health: a new global agenda | A redefinition of women’s health agenda and setting additional priorities, other than women’s sexual and reproductive health. | Norton et al |
| European Association of Editors | 2016 | Sex and gender equity in research (SAGER) guidelines | A tool for researchers and authors to standardize sex and gender in scientific publications on four levels: topic of the study, sex- and gender-disaggregated data report, study design, discussion/limitations | De Castro et al |