Genusbias i suicidprevention - en litteraturbaserad studie
Introduction: Suicide is a major public health problem both internationally and in Sweden. Itis known in research that sex and gender have a bearing on the incidence of suicide andattempted suicide. Gender Bias in medical research could lead to medical errors and to thatthe problem is made invisible. That is why it is important to identify and eliminate them. AimThe purpose of this paper was to examine whether there is gender bias in scientific articlesdealing with suicide prevention interventions and how this is expressed. MethodThe completed study is a literature-based study of research in a particular domain. Searchesrelated to suicide prevention were made in the databases: PubMed, PsychInfo and Scopus,which resulted in a sample of 15 articles. For the analysis to be conducted in a scientificmanner and for the assessment to be systematically performed an existing analytical model,the BIAS FREE FRAMEWORK which was developed based on theories of the socialinequalities perpetuated by the maintenance of social hierarchies, was used. With the analysismodel as base, it was examined if one or more of the three problem areas that constitute ?TheBias Triangle? were represented in this study. Results The analysis showed that there isgender bias in a majority of the articles. Most of the gender bias that was detected could besubsumed to the problem area "failing to examine differences". This was expressed by,insensitivity to differences, over- generalization or universialization and assumedhomogeneity. The second most common bias that occurred was the ?use of double standards?which was expressed by stereotyping and under-representation and exclusion. Maintenance ofan existing hierarchy was less prevalent and was reflected by the fact that male was treated asthe norm. In three of the articles, no gender biases were identified. Discussion There arebiases in suicide research, which depends on sex and gender. To draw attention to gender biasis the precondition for this to be eliminated. More research on how gender bias is manifestedand how it should be addressed is essential to create effective and equal Suicide Prevention.