Participation in research

[differenceblog]

As we started to discuss in comments to last Thursday's post ( "Baby and Back"), women are not proportionately represented in most research. While more than half of all living humans are women, far less than half of research participants are. Most of the disparity is attributed to "willingness to participate" (WTP) in research. While much

Comments

[poeticalpanther]

I signed up for a local "match-subjects-to-studies" service a couple of years ago,

Where does one find such a service locally?

[differenceblog]

In my case, there were ads on the subway. I'm not sure how I'd look for one in Canada without just resorting to Google.

[poeticalpanther]

Mmm, thank you; my alma mater's research hospital is only a forty-minute drive from here ( McMaster University, in Hamilton, for those in Southwestern Ontario). That should be quite easy to manage.

[astrogeek01]

So women trust medical researchers more (lower distrust) but yet perceive greater harm from being in the studies? I wonder why that is. What risks to women see in studies more than men do?

I've thought of participating in a few studies (mostly related to asthma) but I'm usually too lazy (or, read that: too busy to remember until it's too late) to call the number, even if I tear off the little piece of paper. It's pretty much the only "condition" I have which I see people advertising for help on. No one seems to want to image my brain. :(

[differenceblog]

I believe this falls into the general literature on women vs. men on risk assessment and risk aversion. Women worry. Women rate fears more highly and are less willing to do things they are fearful of. I would be surprised to find a medical study that actually examined the specific concerns of the participants - that seems more psychological to me.

[differenceblog]

Ah, yeah... I should have made that clearer. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, women received 57.4% of all Bachelor's degrees in the U.S. in 2004-2005, but received 77.8% of psychology Bachelor's degrees.

[lonecow]

Yep, I was going to make a similar comment. In my psychology classes more often than not 75% of the students were female. Interestingly, I didn't get so many female lecturers and tutors in psychology, though. I guess women tend to practice as psychologists rather than stay in academia?

[deathjoy]

Many of the paid research trials I have called about exclude women due to taking birth control, ability to conceive, or fluctuation of hormones confounding results.

[differenceblog]

So, let me get this straight:

If they're on birth control, they're medicated, and so they're not eligible
If they're NOT on birth control, they might conceive, so they're not eligible.
and whether or not they're on birth control, they have hormones (unlike men?!?) and so they're not eligible.

If it's not too personal, what kind of studies were these?

[deathjoy]

I don't remember exactly, but different medications, some for skin disorders and some for cholesterol and blood pressure. I wanted in on whatever I could get paid for! They did say post menopausal women were eligible.

When I did research in a psych rat lab, I was also told that female rats were not usually used due to hormonal fluctuations.