Representation of Women in Randomized Trials in Cardiac Surgery: A Meta-Analysis

Mario Gaudino*, Michele Di Mauro, Stephen E. Fremes, Antonino Di Franco

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Background Women have traditionally been underrepresented in randomized clinical trials (RCTs). We performed a systematic evaluation of the inclusion of women in cardiac surgery RCTs published in the past 2 decades. Methods and Results MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library were searched (2000 to July 2020) for RCTs written in English, comparing >= 2 adult cardiac surgical procedures. The percentage of women enrolled and its association with year of publication, sample size, mean age, funding source, geographic location, number of sites involved, and interventions tested were analyzed using a meta-analytic approach. Fifty-one trials were included. Of 25 425 total patients, 5029 were women (20.8%; 95% CI, 17.6-24.4; range, 0.5%-57.9%). The proportion of women dropped significantly during the study period (29.6% in 2000 versus 13.1% in 2019, P

Original languageEnglish
Article number020513
Number of pages20
JournalJournal of the American Heart Association
Volume10
Issue number16
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 17 Aug 2021

Keywords

  • cardiac surgery
  • RCT
  • women
  • ARTERY-BYPASS SURGERY
  • INTERNAL-THORACIC-ARTERY
  • OF-LIFE OUTCOMES
  • ON-PUMP SURGERY
  • RADIAL-ARTERY
  • SAPHENOUS-VEIN
  • CORONARY SURGERY
  • MYOCARDIAL REVASCULARIZATION
  • VALVE SURGERY
  • GRAFT PATENCY

Cite this