December 7, 2020
A growing body of evidence supports a potential link between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and gender dysphoria, yet few studies have looked at sex differences in the co-occurrence of gender diversity and ASD. The aim of this study was to characterize sex differences in gender-diverse expressions and identities, as well as gender-related concerns, in youth with ASD. Parents of youth with ASD ages 6-21 (n = 163) completed an online questionnaire about their child's gender expression and identity. Sex-typed behaviors during childhood were measured using the Gender Identity Questionnaire (GIQ). Semi-partial Kendall correlations and chi-square tests were used to compare gender non-conformity, gender-diverse identities, and gender-related concerns between sexes. Sex-based differences in mean GIQ score and individual GIQ items were evaluated using a linear regression and semi-partial Kendall correlations, respectively. All regressions and correlations controlled for child age. Parents of girls were more likely to report child appearances and mannerisms that were less concordant with their child's birth sex. Based on parent-report, girls had lower mean GIQ scores, indicating greater cross-gendered/fewer same-gendered behaviors in childhood. Lastly, parents of girls with ASD were more likely to report that their daughters experienced anxiety due to gender-related concerns and discomfort during puberty than parents of boys. These findings suggest that girls with ASD seem more likely have gender-diverse preferences, mannerisms, and appearances that fall outside of traditional gender norms. Gender-related concerns appear to be a source of real distress in girls with ASD, highlighting the need for individualized support, especially during puberty. LAY SUMMARY: Despite evidence of a potential link between autism and gender diversity, few studies have explored differences in gender identity/expression between boys and girls with autism. Based on parent responses, we found that girls with autism are more likely than boys to have appearances and mannerisms, as well as behaviors during childhood, that fall outside of the traditional gender role. The unique profile of girls with autism and their elevated distress over gender-related concerns call for individualized support during adolescence.
December 7, 2020
The importance of participation in academic conferences is well known for members of the scientific community. It is not only for the feedback and the improvement of the work, it is also about career development, building networks and increasing visibility. Nevertheless, women continue to be under-represented in these academic events and even more so in the most visible positions such as speaking roles. This paper presents the development of a tool based on performance indicators, which will allow monitoring and evaluating gender roles and inequalities in academic conferences in order to tackle the underrepresentation of women. The study identifies relevant perspectives (participation, organizational structure and attitudes) and designs specific lists of performance indicators for each of them. The tool is based on a combination of two multicriteria techniques, Analytic Hierarchy Process and Analytic Hierarchy Process Sort, and a qualitative analysis based on in-depth interviews and information gathered from a focus group. The use of the AHP multi-criteria decision technique has allowed us to weight the indicators according to the opinion of several experts, and with them to be able to generate from these weightings composite indicators for each of the three dimensions. The most relevant indicators were for the participation dimension. Additionally, the tool developed has been applied to an academic conference which has been monitored in real time. The results are shown as a traffic light visualization approach, where red means bad performance, yellow average performance and green good performance, helping us to present the results for each indicator. Finally, proposals for improvement actions addressed to the red indicators are explained. The work carried out highlights the need to broaden the study of gender equality in academic conferences, not only regarding the participation but also the performance of different roles and functions.
Closing the gender gap at academic conferences: A tool for monitoring and assessing academic events
December 7, 2020
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is consistently diagnosed 3 to 5 times more frequently in males than females, a dramatically sex-biased prevalence that suggests the involvement of sex-differential biological factors in modulating risk. The genomic scale of transcriptomic analyses of human brain tissue can provide an unbiased approach for identifying genes and associated functional processes at the intersection of sex-differential and ASD-impacted neurobiology. Several studies characterizing gene expression changes in the ASD brain have been published in recent years with increasing sample size and cellular resolution. These studies report several convergent patterns across data sets and genetically heterogeneous samples in the ASD brain, including elevated expression of gene sets associated with glial and immune function, and reduced expression of gene sets associated with neuronal and synaptic functions. Assessment of neurotypical cortex tissue has reported parallel patterns by sex, with male-elevated expression of overlapping sets of glial/immune-related genes and female-biased expression of neuron-associated genes, suggesting potential roles for these cell types in sex-differential ASD risk mechanisms. However, validating and further exploring these mechanisms is challenged by the available data, as existing studies of ASD brain include a limited number of female ASD donors and focus predominantly on cortex regions not known to show pronounced sex-differential morphology or function. With this review, we summarize convergent findings from several landmark studies of the transcriptome in ASD brain and their relationship to sex-differential gene expression, and we discuss limitations and remaining questions regarding transcriptomic analysis of sex differences in ASD.
December 4, 2020
As governments across the world go on a buying spree for Covid-19 vaccines, a group of scientists and health experts raise concerns that data on gender differences and the virus are not being gathered which could impact their rollout. Annette Young talks to Professor Kent Buse from Global Health 50/50 on why it matters.
Gender and Covid-19 vaccines: Lack of data on gender differences could impact rollout
December 1, 2020
Vision loss may not immediately come to mind as a women’s health issue, but women are disproportionately harmed by most major eye conditions. These diseases can be debilitating for an individual’s physical and mental health as well as their overall quality of life. Vision disorders affect women of all ages and successfully improving women’s eye health requires attention to the continuum of health across the life span and awareness of these issues on a societal level.
A Call to Improve Women’s Eye Health Through Research, Access, and Education
December 1, 2020
Background: The present study sought to examine the trends of sex-based differences in clinical outcomes after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), an area in which the current evidence remains limited. Methods: All US adults hospitalized for first-time isolated CABG in the National Inpatient Sample database between 2004 and 2015 were included, stratified by sex. Multivariable regression analysis examined the adjusted odds ratios (OR) of postoperative in-hospital complications in females versus males. Trend analyses of sex-based differences in in-hospital post-operative complications over the study period were performed. Results: Overall, 2,537,767 CABG procedures were analyzed, including 27.9% (n = 708,459) females. Female sex was associated with an increase in adjusted odds of all-cause mortality (OR 1.43 95% CI 1.40, 1.45), stroke (OR 1.34 95% CI 1.32, 1.37) and thoracic complications (OR 1.28 95% CI 1.27, 1.29) and lower odds of all-cause bleeding (OR 0.87 95% CI 0.86, 0.89) compared to males. Trend analysis revealed these sex differences to be persistent for mortality, stroke and thoracic complications (ptrend = non-significant) but eliminated for bleeding over the study period (ptrend < 0.001). Conclusion: Despite technical advances over the 12-year period, worse post-operative outcomes including death, stroke, and thoracic complications have persisted in female patients after CABG. These findings are concerning and underscore the need for risk reduction strategies to address this disparity gap.
December 1, 2020
Despite 50% of biology Ph.D. graduates being women, the number of women that advance in academia decreases at each level (e.g., from graduate to postdoctorate to tenure track). Recently, scientific societies and publishers have begun examining internal submissions data to evaluate representation and evaluation of women in their peer review processes; however, representation and attitudes differ by scientific field, and to date, no studies have investigated academic publishing in the field of microbiology. Using manuscripts submitted between January 2012 and August 2018 to the 15 journals published by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), we describe the representation of women at ASM journals and the outcomes of their manuscripts. Senior women authors at ASM journals were underrepresented compared to global and society estimates of microbiology researchers. Additionally, manuscripts submitted by corresponding authors that were women received more negative outcomes than those submitted by men. These negative outcomes were somewhat mediated by whether or not the corresponding author was based in the United States and by the type of institution for United States-based authors. Nonetheless, the pattern for women corresponding authors to receive more negative outcomes on their submitted manuscripts held. We conclude with suggestions to improve the representation of women and decrease structural penalties against women. IMPORTANCE Barriers in science and academia have prevented women from becoming researchers and experts that are viewed as equivalent to their colleagues who are men. We evaluated the participation and success of women researchers at ASM journals to better understand their success in the field of microbiology. We found that women are underrepresented as expert scientists at ASM journals. This is, in part, due to a combination of both low submissions from senior women authors and more negative outcomes on submitted manuscripts for women compared to men.
December 1, 2020
Objectives: To investigate whether the prospective association between electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use and cigarette smoking is dependent on smoking intention status. Methods: Waves 2 and 3 data of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study, a US nationally representative prospective cohort study of tobacco use. Data were collected in 2014-2015 (wave 2) and 2015-2016 (wave 3) and analyzed in 2019. Results: At wave 2, 12.8% of adolescent never-smokers of conventional cigarettes had intention to smoke and 8.5% had ever used an e-cigarette. At wave 3, 3.2% had ever smoked a cigarette. Both smoking intention and ever using e-cigarettes at wave 2 were positively associated with cigarette smoking at wave 3 (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 3.03; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.97-4.68, P < .001; aOR = 4.62, 95% CI = 2.87-7.42, P < .001, respectively). The interaction between smoking intention and ever using e-cigarettes was significant (aOR = 0.34, 95% CI = 0.18-0.64, P < .01). Among adolescents who had expressed intention to smoke conventional cigarettes at wave 2, the odds of cigarette smoking at wave 3 did not significantly differ for e-cigarette users and never e-cigarette users (aOR = 1.57; 95% CI 0.94-2.63; P = .08). Among adolescents who had no intention to smoke at wave 2, e-cigarette users, compared with never e-cigarette users, had >4 times the odds of cigarette smoking (aOR = 4.62; 95% CI 2.87-7.42; P < .0001). Conclusions: E-cigarette use is associated with increased odds of cigarette smoking among adolescents who had no previous smoking intention. E-cigarette use may create intention to smoke and/or nicotine use disorder that lead to onset of cigarette smoking.
Smoking Intention and Progression From E-Cigarette Use to Cigarette Smoking
November 26, 2020
The present study investigated variables potentially associated with a lack of concern about COVID-19 and belief in the conspiracy theory that China is responsible for the virus. In particular, the study looked at Authoritarianism, Conspiracy Beliefs, gender, and consistency of handedness as predictors of nine Likert-type items gauging attitudes, behavior, and beliefs regarding the virus. Initial analyses showed that Authoritarianism predicted less concern about the impact of the virus on health, less mask wearing, and a stronger belief in China's responsibility for the illness. Conspiracy Beliefs were associated with a stronger belief in China's responsibility. Women expressed greater degrees of concern about their own and others' health and about the financial wellbeing of others. In order to reduce the number of dimensions, and thus the number of tests that could yield a type one error, the nine items were then submitted to a principal components analysis which yielded a "Concern about COVID" factor and a "Blame for China" factor. Authoritarianism is generally associated with less concern about the virus. In addition, men showed less concern about the virus overall than women. Both Authoritarianism and Conspiracy Beliefs accounted for unique variance in blame on China for the virus.
November 24, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic is leading a Purdue University innovator to make changes as she works to provide new options for people with Parkinson’s disease. Jessica Huber, a professor of speech, language, and hearing sciences and associate dean for research in Purdue’s College of Health and Human Sciences, leads Purdue’s Motor Speech Lab. Huber and her team are now doing virtual studies to evaluate speech disorders related to Parkinson’s using artificial intelligence technology platforms.
