Disentangling gender, sex, and biology: a mixed methods study of gender identity data collection tools.
Ash B Alpert, Tresne Hernandez, Roman Ruddick and 17 others
PMID 39471780WHAT IT FOUND
More transgender and gender diverse adults preferred the usual gender identity questions over community-developed ones.
They found terms unclear, wanted questions optional, and said safety shaped whether they answered.
Key findings
01More participants preferred the previously used gender identity questions than the community-developed questions (65% versus 35%), and more found them comfortable (50% versus 35%) and accurate (50% versus 30%).
02Participants said questions about gender were hard to answer because forms and clinicians often mix sex assigned at birth, anatomy, legal sex, and gender.
03Most participants said being able to decline to answer was important for privacy and safety, and many preferred open-ended or check-all-that-apply options.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study included 20 participants and was qualitative-dominant, so it is small and not generalizable. The researchers did not tell participants the setting in which the questions would be used, and some participants said they would answer differently in a clinical setting than elsewhere. Participants may have preferred the previous questions because they are common in medical settings, not because they are better. Interview responses may have been shaped by social desirability bias, although participants were not told which question set was expected to be preferred. Participants could report multiple identities, so the percentages do not add up to 20 or 100%.
Declared interests
The authors declared competing interests: Dr. Juno Obedin-Maliver has consulted for Sage Therapeutics, Ibis Reproductive Health, Hims, Folx, and Upstream. No funding source is stated in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that community-developed gender identity questions are preferred or better. More participants preferred the previously used questions (65% versus 35%), and the study was small and not generalizable.