IGH Cochrane Corner

New Cochrane reviews

Welcome to the IGH Cochrane Corner!

The Corner is a collection of review summaries and original articles that address issues related to gender and sex considerations in systematic reviews.

In the Corner:

  • Review Summaries describe how sex and gender are considered within selected systematic reviews. Summaries report on the strengths and weaknesses of the approaches to sex and gender used in the selected reviews. Navigate to the review topics you are interested in using the right-hand sidebar on this page. (New summaries added quarterly.)  
  • Corner Columns are an original series of articles that highlight methodological, substantive, or newsworthy issues related to sex, gender, health and systematic reviews. (New columns appear biannually and are simultaneously published in IGH's biannual newsletter Intersections.)

What are Systematic Reviews?

Systematic reviews, a form of knowledge synthesis, are often highly regarded as powerful scientific evidence because they analyze findings from numerous individual studies on a given topic in order to draw conclusions. As such, decision-makers and health professionals often rely on systematic reviews for information about what interventions work, with whom, and when.

What do Sex and Gender have to do with Systematic Reviews?

Considering sex and gender in systematic reviews is important for understanding the applicability of the evidence. "Considering" sex and gender involves reporting whether interventions have differential effects in men or women, boys or girls, or among groups of the same sex or gender. It also involves reporting whether or not there is sufficient evidence to extend the conclusions of a review to certain groups. For example, if the primary studies included in a review used only male samples, can the review conclusions be applied to all men or to women?

Use the Corner to:

  • Find out how sex and gender were considered in recent systematic reviews. 
  • Identify and consider methodological and practical issues related to sex and gender in systematic reviews.
  • Get to know Cochrane systematic reviews.

With funding from IGH, the Campbell and Cochrane Equity Methods Group works to advance our methodological understanding of how knowledge syntheses can consider sex and gender. The IGH Cochrane Corner identifies health equity issues related to gender and sex in Cochrane systematic reviews.

The Corner aims to introduce those working in gender, sex, and health to the methods of the Cochrane Collaboration and to bring awareness of sex- and gender-based analyses to the Cochrane community.

The Cochrane Collaboration produces up-to-date, reliable information about the evidence on diagnostic tests, health interventions, and health system interventions.

Links to Cochrane Resources

Contact information

Jennifer O'Neill
Email: jennifer.oneill@uottawa.ca
Campbell and Cochrane Equity Methods Group

Supplemental content (right column)