Abstract
Background: Integration of sex and gender into health research is best practice for designing and conducting equitable, rigorous scientific research. Many evidence-based resources exist to support researchers in this endeavour, but such resources often remain underutilized as they are difficult to find, are not publicly accessible, or are specific to a particular research phase, context, or population. The development and evaluation of a repository of resources was deemed important to create an accessible platform for promoting sex- and gender-integration in health research. Methods: A rapid review was conducted of critical resources for conducting sex and gender health research. These were integrated into a prototype website design (the Genderful Research World; GRW) that provided an interactive digital landscape for researchers to access these resources. A pilot study evaluated the GRW website for applicability, desirability, and usability with an international sample of 31 health researchers from various disciplines and career stages. Quantitative data from the pilot study was summarized with descriptive statistics. Qualitative data was summarized narratively and used to identify concrete elements for improvement in a second design iteration. Results: Results of the pilot study revealed that the GRW was considered user friendly and desirable by health researchers and helped them access relevant information. Feedback suggested that providing these resources in a playful way may enhance the experience of the user, particularly given the high ‘desirability’ scores and that users emphasized the interactive layout as being key to their intention to integrate it into their teaching endeavors. Key feedback from the pilot study (e.g., addition of resources specific to research with transgender populations, revision of website layout) was integrated into the current version of the website: www.genderfulresearchworld.com . Conclusions: The present research suggests a utility for a repository of resources for integrating sex and gender considerations into research, and that providing a logical, intuitive means of cataloguing and navigating such resources is critical for usability. The results of this study may inform the development of other novel researcher-directed resource curation efforts to address health equity issues and encourage and support health researchers to integrate a sex and gender perspective in their work.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 118 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1-10 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | International journal for equity in health |
| Volume | 22 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 20 Jun 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This study was co-funded by ZonMw and Canadian Institutes of Health Research Institute for Gender and Health (I/O number 50012360). Both institutes were involved in sharing recruitment information for the present study to their networks and contributed to some of the materials that were incorporated into the GRW website, but did not have a role in the design, data analysis, interpretation, or manuscript writing. KEB was supported by fellowship funding from the Canadian Child Health Clinician Scientist Program during the preparation of this manuscript. She has received honoraria from the Journal of Pediatric Psychology for editorial services.
Funding Information:
The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of Arjen van Bochoven for web design support, and the faculty of the ZonMw Gender and Health fellowship for input into resource selection and landscape structure.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s).
Funding
This study was co-funded by ZonMw and Canadian Institutes of Health Research Institute for Gender and Health (I/O number 50012360). Both institutes were involved in sharing recruitment information for the present study to their networks and contributed to some of the materials that were incorporated into the GRW website, but did not have a role in the design, data analysis, interpretation, or manuscript writing. KEB was supported by fellowship funding from the Canadian Child Health Clinician Scientist Program during the preparation of this manuscript. She has received honoraria from the Journal of Pediatric Psychology for editorial services. The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of Arjen van Bochoven for web design support, and the faculty of the ZonMw Gender and Health fellowship for input into resource selection and landscape structure.
Keywords
- Gender
- Information dissemination
- Knowledge mobilization
- Research methods
- Sex