Prevention & lipidsMeta-analysis
Female participation, and sex-specific reporting practices, in polypill randomized controlled trials in the prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease: a secondary analysis of a systematic review
- Secondary analysis of a systematic review
Authors' conclusion
The participation of females in cardiovascular polypill trials is substantially higher in primary prevention trials as compared with trials conducted in mixed or exclusively secondary prevention populations. The use of sex-specific eligibility criteria was not linked to lower female participation. Sex-specific reporting is sparsely conducted, although most frequent in larger trials.
Study context
- Population
- Polypill RCTs for prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD)
- Participants
- 26 trials
- Comparison
- Primary prevention trials vs Mixed or secondary prevention trials
- Primary prevention trialsn = 18
- Mixed or secondary prevention trialsn = 8
- Outcome
- Female participation and sex-specific analyses and reporting
Pooled result
As reported in the abstract
Proportion of female participants
- Overall female participants
- 42%
- Female participation range across trials
- 10% to 73%
Further pooled results
Female participation by sex-specific exclusion criteria
Trials trials that excluded groups of females 12 · trials without explicit exclusion criteria 13
Sex-stratified analyses reported
- Trials reporting sex-stratified analyses (9 of 26)
- 35%
- Share of all participants in those trials
- 70%
- Trials finding some evidence of possible sex differences (larger BP effects in females)
- 2
- Trials with sex considerations in the discussion
- 4
Original publication
Female participation, and sex-specific reporting practices, in polypill randomized controlled trials in the prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease: a secondary analysis of a systematic review. Eur J Prev Cardiol. Published 20 September 2024. doi:10.1093/eurjpc/zwae307
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it