The CCNA Sex and Gender Core works with research teams to ensure that relevant sex and gender research approaches, methods, and questions are being studied across the spectrum of neurodegeneration and aging.
Our goals are two-fold:
- To support researchers in capturing important sex and gender differences in prevalence, incidence, symptoms, and progression of neurodegenerative diseases, and
- To enhance the innovation of research in neurodegenerative diseases and aging leading to the development of more precise interventions for prevention and treatment of neurodegeneration and fostering healthy aging.
Research teams can improve how they consider sex and gender in their research plans and grant applications using the following suggestions and resources:
Know what you are studying.
Familiarize yourself with sex, gender, and related terms in health research using this tool: CIHR Sex, Gender and Health Research Guide: A Tool for CIHR Applicants
Know who you are studying.
Sex and gender are experienced broadly by the individuals we invite to participate in our research. Correctly identifying the experiences of our participants and categorizing participant pools is integral to performing effective sex and gender health research. An individual’s gender extends beyond their gender identity and collecting data on experiences of masculinity and femininity, gender roles, or gender expression may be important additions. This Gender and Sex in Methods & Measurement toolkit may be helpful in identifying what questions to ask.
Integrate sex and gender into your research plan.
Use the Sex/Gender-Responsive Assessment Scale to evaluate how your research currently considers sex and gender. Develop a strategy to transform your research plan to integrate sex and gender, including sex- and gender-based analysis (SGBA), by consulting the CIHR Sex and Gender Training Modules.
- Module 1: Sex and Gender in Biomedical Research emphasizes the critical appraisal of sex and gender integration in research protocols and publications.
- Module 2: Sex and Gender in Primary Data Collection with Humans identifies methods for integrating sex and gender in data collection.
- Module 3: Sex and Gender in the Analysis of Secondary Data from Human Participants introduces methods for conducting a SGBA using data from human participants.
Prepare for success.
Conducting SGBA will lead to innovation and more precise clinical outcomes. However, it’s important to prepare for first-time challenges. At the outset:
- Clearly determine which relevant citations studied males, females, women, men, mixed sex controlling for sex, or sex/gender disaggregated data.
- Ensure your research plan is equipped to effectively conduct SGBA. For example, the research budget should reflect the need to recruit more participants or to train lab personnel. Here are some suggested readings on the necessity and success of sex and gender in health research:
- Brown et al. (2023) Sex and Gender Science: The World Writes on the Body.
- M. Beltz et al. (2019) Analysis of sex differences in pre-clinical and clinical data sets.
- W. Rich-Edwards et al. (2018) Sex and Gender Differences Research Design for Basic, Clinical, and Population Studies: Essentials for Investigators.
Additional resources: