Study: Women underrepresented as principal investigators in arthroplasty literature
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Key takeaways:
- Women were underrepresented as principal investigators in total hip and total knee arthroplasty clinical trials.
- This may lead to disparities in academic promotion and advancement and less provider diversity.
Women were underrepresented as principal investigators in total hip and total knee arthroplasty clinical trials which may lead to disparities in academic promotion and advancement, according to published results.
Jason Silvestre, MD, and colleagues from Perelman School of Medicine at University of Pennsylvania analyzed 157 THA and TKA clinical trials from 2015 to 2021. They calculated participation-to-prevalence ratios (PPRs) by comparing sex representation among principal investigators (PIs) with academic arthroplasty faculty at institutions conducting THA and TKA trials. According to the study, a PPR of less than 0.8 indicated underrepresentation, whereas a PPR of 1.2 indicated overrepresentation.
Of the 192 PIs included in the study, two (1%) were women. Researchers found 78.2% of the 243 eligible men served as PIs, whereas 11.8% of the 17 eligible women served as PIs.
With a PPR of 0.16, researchers deemed women to be underrepresented as PIs in these clinical trials, whereas men were “equitably represented” with a PPR of 1.06. Analysis of academic arthroplasty faculty revealed women were also underrepresented as assistant professors (PPR = 0), associate professors (PPR = 0.52) and full professors (PPR = 0.58).
“The underrepresentation of women among arthroplasty PIs may lead to fewer options in surgical providers for patients and may limit access to musculoskeletal care for certain patient populations,” Silvestre and colleagues wrote in the study.
“A diverse arthroplasty workforce can promote attention to issues that disproportionately affect historically underrepresented and vulnerable patient populations,” they concluded.
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