A new study has shown that women are more likely to be recruited for cardiovascular research than men.A recent review of 740 cardiovascular clinical trials that were completed between 2010 and 2017 revealed that 38% of all participants were women.Dr Jeske van Dermen from the Amsterdam University Medical Centre in the Netherlands was one of the authors of the study. He said that changing this is more difficult than it sounds.Van Diemen and her colleagues searched for evidence to support the motivations, facilitators, and barriers that women face in cardiovascular disease trials. According to the European Heart Journal paper, they found six studies that met their criteria (including 846 men and 1122 women).Both sexes highlighted the importance of trials enrollment, pointing out that there was a possibility for better care and the desire to promote science. However, both men and women also saw the limitations of time and potential for adverse outcomes as motivations for enrolling in them.Women were more likely to decline trial participation because they perceived greater harm than men. Van Diemen said that although trial risk perceptions are not the same for both sexes, women often face barriers that make it difficult to attend follow up appointments. For example, they may not have a driving license or care for grandchildren.The authors found that women comprised only 10% of the clinical trial leadership committees for cardiovascular studies published in three medical journal journals. This suggests that it is possible to increase participation by recruiting diverse research teams and increasing access to trial sites. Van Diemen said that it was important to include participants in trial design.Clinical trials favor male subjects historically. Scientists initially excluded women and their foetuses from clinical drug research because of a series of birth defects and other health problems that were linked to foetal exposure to certain drugs in the 1940s and 1970s.Researchers considered women, because of their fluctuating hormone levels and other problems, to be confounding subjects. They believed that men and women would react similarly to drugs. Caucasian males were considered to be the norm. Women aren't just small men. For example, women have different physiologies. They have smaller kidneys and more fat tissues. Slowly, regulatory standards began to shift in favor of including women in trials in the 1990s.Like many areas of medical research in general, the recruitment of clinical trials is balanced by sex. However, sometimes it can lead to dire results.
