Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

The impact that sex and gender have on health and well-being is not entirely known. Additionally, much of the current health research is limited by the regular confusion of sex and gender. To address this, many institutions, have encouraged including sex- and gender-based analysis [SGBA] in health research. One reason for the lack of SGBA in health research is that current tools are lengthy, awkward, and outdated. The purpose of this research is to develop and validate a new tool that can be used in health research when sex or gender are not the focus of the study. This tool aims to help researchers include SGBA into their work, and to support them with the analysis and interpretation for SGBA. The tool will consist of a question asking for the person’s biological sex at birth, as well as 4 questions about gender that are measured on a feminine to masculine continuum. This tool’s use of continuous measurements of gender allows for better understanding of the person-to-person variability across these dimensions of gender. We believe this tool is a novel application of SGBA for use in research and clinical trials where sex/gender are not the primary focus. Development of this tool will include three steps. First, content validity will be assessed by literature review and talking with health researchers. Second, construct validity will be assessed by expert heath researchers from across Canada through a Delphi Consensus study. Finally, test-retest reliability will be done by having at least 50 people answer the tool twice. This scale’s targeted method for SGBA in health research can be a key step in improving our understanding of how sex and gender affect health.