TY - JOUR
T1 - Sex as a prognostic factor in systematic reviews
T2 - challenges and lessons learned
AU - Stallings, Elena
AU - Antequera, Alba
AU - López-Alcalde, Jesús
AU - García-Martín, Miguel
AU - Urrútia, Gerard
AU - Zamora, Javier
PY - 2021/5/21
Y1 - 2021/5/21
N2 - Sex is a common baseline factor collected in studies that has the potential to be a prognostic factor (PF) in several clinical areas. In recent years, research on sex as a PF has increased; however, this influx of new studies frequently shows conflicting results across the same treatment or disease state. Thus, systematic reviews (SRs) addressing sex as a PF may help us to better understand diseases and further personalize healthcare. We wrote this article to offer insights into the challenges we encountered when conducting SRs on sex as a PF and suggestions on how to overcome these obstacles, regardless of the clinical domain. When carrying out a PF SR with sex as the index factor, it is important to keep in mind the modifications that must be made in various SR stages, such as modifying the PF section of CHARMS-PF, adjusting certain sections of QUIPS and extracting data on the sex and gender terms used throughout the studies. In this paper, we provide an overview of the lessons learned from carrying out our reviews on sex as a PF in different disciplines and now call on researchers, funding agencies and journals to realize the importance of studying sex as a PF.
AB - Sex is a common baseline factor collected in studies that has the potential to be a prognostic factor (PF) in several clinical areas. In recent years, research on sex as a PF has increased; however, this influx of new studies frequently shows conflicting results across the same treatment or disease state. Thus, systematic reviews (SRs) addressing sex as a PF may help us to better understand diseases and further personalize healthcare. We wrote this article to offer insights into the challenges we encountered when conducting SRs on sex as a PF and suggestions on how to overcome these obstacles, regardless of the clinical domain. When carrying out a PF SR with sex as the index factor, it is important to keep in mind the modifications that must be made in various SR stages, such as modifying the PF section of CHARMS-PF, adjusting certain sections of QUIPS and extracting data on the sex and gender terms used throughout the studies. In this paper, we provide an overview of the lessons learned from carrying out our reviews on sex as a PF in different disciplines and now call on researchers, funding agencies and journals to realize the importance of studying sex as a PF.
KW - gender
KW - methods
KW - prognosis
KW - prognostic factor
KW - sex
KW - systematic review
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85107270512&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/jpm11060441
DO - 10.3390/jpm11060441
M3 - Article
C2 - 34063786
SN - 2075-4426
VL - 11
JO - Journal of Personalized Medicine
JF - Journal of Personalized Medicine
IS - 6
M1 - 441
ER -