{"title":"Explaining biological differences between men and women by gendered mechanisms.","authors":"Hélène Colineaux, Lola Neufcourt, Cyrille Delpierre, Michelle Kelly-Irving, Benoit Lepage","doi":"10.1186/s12982-023-00121-6","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The principal aim of this study was to explore if biological differences between men and women can be explained by gendered mechanisms.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We used data from the 1958 National Child Development Study, including all the living subjects of the cohort at the outcome collection wave (44-45 years). We explored several biomarkers as outcomes: systolic blood pressure, triglycerides, LDL cholesterol, HbA1c, CRP, and cortisol. Three conceptualizations of gender have been used to define methodological strategies: (a) Gender as an individual characteristic; (b) Gender as an effect of sex on socio-behavioural characteristics; (c) Gender as an interaction between sex and the social environment, here the early-life social environment. We estimated the total effect of sex and the proportion of total effect of sex at birth eliminated by gender, measured by 3 different ways according to these 3 concepts, using g-computation.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The average level of each biomarker was significantly different according to sex at birth, higher in men for cardiometabolic biomarkers and higher in women for inflammatory and neuroendocrine biomarkers. The sizes of the differences were always smaller than one standard deviation but were larger than differences due to early-life deprivation, except for CRP. We observed gender mechanisms underlying these differences between men and women, even if the mediation effects were rarely statistically significant. These mechanisms were of three kinds: (1) mediation by socio-behavioural characteristics; (2) attenuation by gendered mechanisms; (3) interaction with early social environment. Indeed, we observed that being born into a deprived rather than non-deprived family increased metabolic and inflammatory biomarkers levels more strongly in females than in males.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The biological differences between men and women seem to not be purely explained by biological mechanisms. The exploration of gender mechanisms opens new perspectives, in terms of methodology, understanding and potential applications.</p>","PeriodicalId":39896,"journal":{"name":"Emerging Themes in Epidemiology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6000,"publicationDate":"2023-03-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10037796/pdf/","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Emerging Themes in Epidemiology","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12982-023-00121-6","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
Background: The principal aim of this study was to explore if biological differences between men and women can be explained by gendered mechanisms.
Methods: We used data from the 1958 National Child Development Study, including all the living subjects of the cohort at the outcome collection wave (44-45 years). We explored several biomarkers as outcomes: systolic blood pressure, triglycerides, LDL cholesterol, HbA1c, CRP, and cortisol. Three conceptualizations of gender have been used to define methodological strategies: (a) Gender as an individual characteristic; (b) Gender as an effect of sex on socio-behavioural characteristics; (c) Gender as an interaction between sex and the social environment, here the early-life social environment. We estimated the total effect of sex and the proportion of total effect of sex at birth eliminated by gender, measured by 3 different ways according to these 3 concepts, using g-computation.
Results: The average level of each biomarker was significantly different according to sex at birth, higher in men for cardiometabolic biomarkers and higher in women for inflammatory and neuroendocrine biomarkers. The sizes of the differences were always smaller than one standard deviation but were larger than differences due to early-life deprivation, except for CRP. We observed gender mechanisms underlying these differences between men and women, even if the mediation effects were rarely statistically significant. These mechanisms were of three kinds: (1) mediation by socio-behavioural characteristics; (2) attenuation by gendered mechanisms; (3) interaction with early social environment. Indeed, we observed that being born into a deprived rather than non-deprived family increased metabolic and inflammatory biomarkers levels more strongly in females than in males.
Conclusions: The biological differences between men and women seem to not be purely explained by biological mechanisms. The exploration of gender mechanisms opens new perspectives, in terms of methodology, understanding and potential applications.
期刊介绍：
Emerging Themes in Epidemiology is an open access, peer-reviewed, online journal that aims to promote debate and discussion on practical and theoretical aspects of epidemiology. Combining statistical approaches with an understanding of the biology of disease, epidemiologists seek to elucidate the social, environmental and host factors related to adverse health outcomes. Although research findings from epidemiologic studies abound in traditional public health journals, little publication space is devoted to discussion of the practical and theoretical concepts that underpin them. Because of its immediate impact on public health, an openly accessible forum is needed in the field of epidemiology to foster such discussion.
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