Connect
MJA
MJA

Fair inclusion of men and women in Australian clinical research: views from ethics committee chairs

Angela J Ballantyne, Wendy A Rogers and on behalf of the Australian Gender Equity in Health Research Group, on behalf of the Australian Gender Equity in Health Research Group
Med J Aust 2008; 188 (11): 653-656. || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2008.tb01824.x
Published online: 2 June 2008

Abstract

Objective: To explore the role played by human research ethics committees (HRECs) with regard to the fair inclusion of men and women in Australian clinical research.

Design and participants: Semi-structured face-to-face and telephone interviews with 25 chairs (or their nominees) of Australian HRECs between 9 June 2006 and 24 January 2007.

Main outcome measures: Chairs’ views about the role of HRECs in identifying sex discrimination, monitoring the inclusion of men and women in clinical research, and interpreting and applying National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) guidelines relating to fair inclusion in research.

Results: In general, HRECs do not take an active role in monitoring the sex of research participants. They do not ask for or often receive information about the sex of participants. Most HREC chairs did not believe that sex discrimination in research is currently a significant or widespread problem, and were confident that their committees would be able to identify arbitrary exclusion of either men or women from research. However, many chairs expressed a lack of familiarity with debates about sex equity in research. Most chairs were unaware that anti-sex-discrimination legislation could apply to research. “Fair inclusion” was interpreted in a number of ways by chairs, but most frequently that the sex balance among research participants should reflect the sex distribution in the community of the condition under investigation. Chairs said their committees would be reluctant to reject a research protocol on the grounds that the sex balance among participants was perceived to be unfair.

Conclusion: Views about, and expertise on, sex equity in research vary among chairs of HRECs. Many HRECs require further guidance about the appropriate standards for fair inclusion of men and women in Australian clinical research.

There is clear historical evidence that women have been excluded from landmark research studies.1 Recent research shows that women over the age of 65 years continue to be under-represented in research, and that men are over-represented in studies of heart disease, and colorectal and lung cancer trials.2-4 Yet, there are recognised sex (biological) and gender (sociobehavioural) differences in the incidence, treatment responses and prognosis of a range of diseases, including arthritis, depression, heart disease and infectious diseases.5-10 Conducting research on unrepresentative research populations limits the applicability of research findings. Lack of evidence about the effectiveness of medical interventions in women may result in both withholding treatments from women that may be beneficial and exposing them to treatments that may be harmful.11

Research guidelines now argue that sex and gender should be considered when designing and analysing the results of studies in all areas of biomedical and health-related research.12,13 For example, in 1993, the United States introduced the NIH Revitalization Act (Public Law 103-43), which mandated the inclusion and monitoring of women and minorities in all health research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).14 Research on humans in Australia is governed by the National statement on ethical conduct of research involving humans (hereafter the National Statement),15 issued by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), supported by the Human research ethics handbook.16 The 2007 National Statement contains a revised section about the inclusion of men and women in research; see Box 1 for a comparison with the 1999 version.

In this study, we explored how human research ethics committees (HRECs) understand their role in interpreting and monitoring sex equity among Australian research participants. Our focus was on the inclusion of men and women in Australian research; some research participants referred to this as sex equity and others as gender equity.

Results

From a possible 225 HRECs in Australia,23 we interviewed 24 chairs and one nominee. Thirty-two per cent of our sample was female, reflecting the national average (in 2006, 31% of the chairs of Australian HRECs were women [Catherine Chippendale, Project Officer, Health Ethics, NHMRC, personal communication]). Our sample included chairs of committees serving institutions ranging from large public hospitals and universities to specialist or community committees. Their workloads varied from a low of 15 to a high of over 700 protocols reviewed per year.

HREC roles

Chairs commonly noted that women had historically been excluded from research, but thought that researchers are now aware of the problems associated with unrepresentative research populations and that a cultural shift had taken place over the past 10–15 years. Most chairs thought the HREC system is adequately equipped to detect and respond to overt sex discrimination in research protocols:

Most chairs acknowledged that sex balance in research was not a high priority. During the course of the interviews, about half of the chairs questioned whether their committee did not see sex discrimination as a problem because they lacked familiarity with these issues, or because the research protocols they reviewed genuinely did not raise issues of under-representation. Committees that were concerned about how men and women were included in a research protocol often felt that they did not have the authority to enforce a particular normative standard. Some chairs maintained that, aside from arbitrary exclusion of males or females, sex balance in a study is a question of scientific merit, to be determined by the researchers.

Definitions of “fair inclusion”

The 2007 National Statement does not explicitly mention sex discrimination, but relies on the concept of “fair participation/inclusion” of research participants (Box 1). It is therefore important to understand how HRECs interpret this standard. Four different definitions of fairness were discussed: (i) no arbitrary exclusion on the grounds of sex; (ii) equal numbers of men and women (for conditions that affect both sexes); (iii) proportional numbers of men and women according to the sex distribution in the patient population; and (iv) sufficient numbers of men and women to support valid analysis of sex differences in the research results. Definitions (i) and (iv) were most frequently endorsed, with most chairs arguing that research should reflect the patient population. No chairs supported a requirement for equal numbers of men and women in trials. Some chairs would like to require analysis of sex and gender differences in well funded studies, but thought this would impede smaller studies.

Having considered the four potential definitions of fairness, many chairs concluded that HRECs do not have sufficient guidance about the standards of fair inclusion they should be applying to research.

Chairs’ opinions were divided as to whether cost and convenience were justifiable grounds for excluding men or women from research. Some said that they accepted studies that excluded one sex on the grounds of cost in cases where, in their view: (i) participation conferred no direct benefit to participants; (ii) it was better that the studies were undertaken on one population than on no one; (iii) the results from one sex would be applicable to all populations; and (iv) the studies would be replicated in other populations in the future. The combination of these arguments demonstrates the historical assumption that female biological processes are, paradoxically, thought to interfere with research to a sufficient degree to justify the exclusion of women, and yet men and women are thought to be homogeneous enough that research results from male studies can be generalised to women.

Many chairs were concerned that stricter regulations regarding sex equity in research would impede research.

Discussion

Our findings indicate that Australian HRECs do not play an active role in monitoring the inclusion of men and women in Australian clinical research, for three key reasons. First, HRECs in general do not consider this to be an important issue, possibly because they lack familiarity with complex international debates about sex and gender equity in research. Second, when HRECs do identify apparent sex discrimination or unfair recruitment strategies, they do not believe they have a clear mandate to reject research protocols on these grounds alone. Third, some HRECs do not believe that research should be impeded on the grounds of sex inequity among the research participants.

It remains unclear whether HRECs are missing important gender and sex dimensions of studies because these issues are not considered to be priorities during ethics review, or whether Australian researchers are not submitting protocols that discriminate on the grounds of sex.

HRECs require further instruction from the NHMRC about how to interpret and apply the generic principle of fair inclusion. Other jurisdictions have provided explicit instruction on appropriate standards for the inclusion of men and women in research. For example, section 492B of the 1993 US NIH Revitalization Act prohibits the use of “cost” as a reason for excluding or under-representing women in NIH-sponsored research.

Australian HRECs apply varying standards of fair inclusion of men and women in research, lack a unified view about appropriate exclusions, and are reluctant to impede clinical research. As one chair pointed out, including questions about sex and gender in the National Ethics Application Form would both raise awareness of sex equity issues and systematically lead researchers and HRECs through relevant questions about when and in what proportion to include men and women in research, and when to include planned statistical analyses of sex differences.

Received 1 August 2007, accepted 5 November 2007

  • Angela J Ballantyne1
  • Wendy A Rogers2
  • on behalf of the Australian Gender Equity in Health Research Group
  • on behalf of the Australian Gender Equity in Health Research Group

  • Department of Medical Education, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA.



Competing interests:

None identified.

  • 1. Dresser R. Wanted: single, white male for medical research. Hastings Cent Rep 1992; 22: 24-29.
  • 2. Murthy VH, Krumholz HM, Gross CP. Participation in cancer clinical trials: race-, sex-, and age-based disparities. JAMA 2004; 291: 2720-2726.
  • 3. Hutchins LF, Unger JM, Crowley JJ, et al. Under-representation of patients 65 years of age or older in cancer-treatment trials. N Engl J Med 1999; 341: 2061-2067.
  • 4. Meinert CL, Gilpin AK. Estimation of gender bias in clinical trials. Stat Med 2001; 20: 1153-1164.
  • 5. Pinn VW. The view from the National Institutes of Health: a decade with the Office of Research on Women’s Health. Gend Med 2004; 1: 5-7.
  • 6. Hung J. Aspirin for primary prevention of cardio- vascular disease in women: does sex matter [editorial]? Med J Aust 2006; 184: 260-261. <MJA full text>
  • 7. Wenger N. Coronary heart disease in women: highlights of the past 2 years — stepping stones, milestones and obstructing boulders. Nat Clin Pract Cardiovasc Med 2006; 3: 194-202.
  • 8. Hayden M, Pignone M, Phillips C, Mulrow C. Aspirin for the primary prevention of cardiovascular events: a summary of the evidence for the US Preventive Services Task Force. Ann Intern Med 2002; 136: 161-172.
  • 9. Ridker PM, Cook NR, Lee IM, et al. A randomized trial of low-dose aspirin in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease in women. N Engl J Med 2005; 352: 1293-1304.
  • 10. Doyal L. Sex and gender: the challenge for epidemiologists. Int J Health Serv 2003; 33: 569-579.
  • 11. Rogers W. Evidence-based medicine and women: do the principles and practice of EBM further women’s health? Bioethics 2004; 18: 50-71.
  • 12. Wizemann TM, Pardue M, editors. Committee on Understanding the Biology of Sex and Gender Differences. Exploring the biological contributions to human health: does sex matter? Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 2001.
  • 13. National Institutes of Health. NIH policy and guidelines on the inclusion of women and minorities as subjects in clinical research – amended, October, 2001. Washington, DC: US Department of Health and Human Services, 2001. http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/women_min/guidelines_amended_10_2001.htm (accessed Jan 2008).
  • 14. National Institutes of Health Tracking/Inclusion Committee. Monitoring adherence to the NIH policy on the inclusion of women and minorities as subjects in clinical research. Bethesda, Md: National Institutes of Health, 2005. http://orwh.od.nih.gov/inclusion/FinalAnnualReport 2003-2004.pdf (accessed Dec 2007).
  • 15. National Health and Medical Research Council, Australian Research Council, Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee. National statement on ethical conduct of research involving humans. Canberra: Australian Government, 2007. http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/publications/synopses/_files/e72.pdf (accessed Dec 2007).
  • 16. National Health and Medical Research Council. Human research ethics handbook. Canberra: NHMRC, 2001. http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/publications/hrecbook/_files/hrechand.pdf (accessed Dec 2007).
  • 17. Liamputtong P, Ezzy D. Qualitative research methods. 2nd ed. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2005: 54-74.
  • 18. Minichiello V, Aroni R, Timewell E, Alexander L. In-depth interviewing: principles, technique, analysis. 2nd ed. Melbourne: Longman Australia, 1995.
  • 19. Barry C, Britten N, Barber N, et al. Using reflexivity to optimize teamwork in qualitative research. Qual Health Res 1999; 9: 26-44.
  • 20. Giacomini MK, Cook DJ. Qualitative research in health care: are the results of the study valid? JAMA 2000; 284: 357-362.
  • 21. Pope C, Ziebland S, Mays N. Qualitative research in health care: analysing qualitative data. BMJ 2000; 320: 114-116.
  • 22. Miles MB, Huberman AM. Qualitative data analysis: an expanded sourcebook. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage, 1994.
  • 23. National Health and Medical Research Council. Overview of human research ethics committees. Canberra: NHMRC, 2007. http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/ethics/human/hrecs/overview.htm (accessed Dec 2007).

Author

remove_circle_outline Delete Author
add_circle_outline Add Author

Comment
Do you have any competing interests to declare? *

I/we agree to assign copyright to the Medical Journal of Australia and agree to the Conditions of publication *
I/we agree to the Terms of use of the Medical Journal of Australia *
Email me when people comment on this article

Online responses are no longer available. Please refer to our instructions for authors page for more information.