METHODS

1. Gendered Neglect: How Relevant is HIV Research to Women? Evan Collins1, Fiona Hale2, Jacquie Gahagan3, Louise Binder4,5 Tyler Crone5 1 University of Toronto, Department of Psychiatry, Toronto, Canada; 2 Salamander Trust Associates, London, United Kingdom; 3 Dalhousie University, School of Health and Human Performance, Halifax, Canada; 4 International Council of Women Living with HIV – North America, Toronto, Canada; 5 Blueprint for Action on Women and Girls and HIV/AIDS, Toronto, Canada; 6 Athena Network, Seattle, United States. WEPE0433 Table 1: Relevance by Scientific Area BACKGROUND RESULTS • In 2009, 404 articles were published in AIDS and 45 in JIAS (total 449) • The majority of articles were Clinical and the fewest were Social-Behavioral. See Figure 2 • Eighty-Five articles were rated Highly Relevant which was 18.9% of the total. See Figure 3 • One Hundred and Twelve articles were rated Medium or Potentially Relevant which was 24.9% of the total. • Two Hundred and Fifty-Two were rated Low or Questionably Relevant, representing 56.1% of the total articles reviewed. • Social and Behavioral articles had the highest percentage of relevance whereas Basic Science articles had the lowest. See Table 1 • Of the 247 studies conducted in human samples, 4 were in mother-infant pairs, 8 were in couples, 33 were in women only and 40 in men only (including 22 single case reports). See Table 2. • Of the 167 mixed human samples, 43 (25.7%) had no breakdown by sex. • Of the 124 studies that broke down their samples by sex, the mean percentage of female subjects was 32.9% (median 30% and mode 20%). • Only 3 studies reported transgendered subjects • Of the 124 only 55.7% disaggregated their results by sex. • There is concern over lack of HIV research relevant to women, especially outside the fields of social sciences and policy. • To evaluate this we chose to analyze all articles published in 2009 in the two journals affiliated with the International AIDS Society, the custodian of AIDS 2010: • AIDS (2009 Impact Factor – 4.909) 404 articles • Journal of the International AIDS Society (JIAS) 45 articles Table 2: Details of Human Samples METHODS • All 449 editorials, research papers, brief reports and letters published in AIDS and JIAS in 2009 were studied. • Each were read and rated on relevance to women based upon a priori criteria. See Figure 1 • Also recorded were scientific area based on conference science tracks, and for studies among humans, details on the study sample. Fig 4: Sample Breakdown by Sex Fig. 1: A Priori Criteria for Rating Relevance CONCLUSIONS • ISSUE OF DIRECT RELEVANCE to WOMEN or GIRLS = 1 POINT • (Eg, reproductive health, female sexual health, side-effects in females, gender based violence, etc) • > 50% FEMALE RESEARCH SUBJECTS = 1 POINT • DISAGGREGATION of RESULTS by SEX = 1 POINT • EXPLICIT DISCUSSION of IMPLICATIONS to WOMEN or GIRLS = 1 point • HIGH RELEVANCE = 2 - 4 POINTS • MEDIUM RELEVANCE (potentially relevant) = 1 POINT • LOW RELEVANCE (questionably relevant) = 0 POINT • Despite the global HIV epidemic now reaching gender parity, research clearly relevant to women was less than 1/5th of the articles published in two leading HIV journals. • Relevance was more likely evident in Social Behavioral, Economics/Operations and Policy articles. • A significant number of studies gave no breakdown by sex in their samples or disaggregated their findings by sex. • Researchers should be encouraged to conduct more on issues relevant to women, include more women in their samples, disaggregate findings by sex, and discuss implications of their findings to women. • Further, editors and conference organizers should mandate breakdown of study and disaggregation of findings by sex so as to increase relevance to women. Fig. 3: Relevance to Women Fig. 2: Scientific Area of Articles For more information on promoting HIV research on and for women, please visit: www.womensblueprint.org and www.athenanetwork.org