“The right decision-making aids should present the advantages and disadvantages in a manner suited to the target group,” says Professor Birte Berger-Höger from the Institute of Public Health and Nursing Research (IPP) at the University of Bremen. Together with Professor Anke Steckelberg from the Institute of Health and Care Sciences of the medical faculty of Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, she is working on the new “GenDivInfo” project.
This project is developing a concept for the creation of medical guidelines and science-based decision-making aids for laypersons that will consider various aspects of gender and diversity. This includes questions of whether medical treatments work differently for people of different genders or if they have different information needs, for example. The concept is being developed and tested using the example of non-hormonal contraception methods, including condoms or also natural contraceptive methods.
Medical guidelines should support staff in the health sector when they are making decisions regarding various treatment options. Currently, no scientific decision-making aids that are understandable for laypersons generally result from guideline-development processes. Such decision-making aids would help people in being involved in relevant decisions concerning their own health.
Additionally, gender and diversity aspects have not been given sufficient consideration in guidelines to date. The best available scientific findings form the basis of both products - the guidelines for experts and decision-making aids for laypersons. Up until know, the creators of decision-making aids suitable for laypersons were hardly able to make use of the scientific findings prepared by the guideline group (evidence synthesis), as it was usually not prepared in such a way that it could be used for said purpose.
In the “GenDivInfo” project, the methods for the creation of medical guidelines are to be further developed in accordance with the highest methodological standard (S3) in order to make gender and diversity-sensitive guidelines and corresponding decision-making aids available. The methods can then be transferred to other guideline processes.
“Citizens and patients want to make informed decisions about the contraceptives that are suitable for them. They need systematically prepared information in order to do this,” states Professor Anke Steckelberg, who leads the “GenDivInfo” project.
A further cooperation partner from the University of Bremen is Dr. Margrit E. Kaufmann, who works on diversity and intersectionality research within the Department of Anthropology and Cultural Research.
The Federal Ministry for Health (BMG) is providing 482,404 euros of project funding from April 1, 2022, to March 31, 2025.
Further Project Participants:
Dr. Julia Lühnen (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale)); PD Dr. Gero Langer (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale)); Prof. Dr. med. Christoph Heesen (Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg); Udo Ehrmann (Bundesverband Prostataselbsthilfe; representative of the men’s health unit); Kerstin Pirker (Graz Women‘s Health Center; representative of the women’s health unit); Dr. Monika Nothacker (AWMF-Institute for Medical Knowledge Management); Dr. Maria Beckermann, Dr. Claudia Schumann, and Helga Seyler (women’s health working group)
Further Information:
www.uni-bremen.de/en/
Contact:
Prof. Dr. phil. Birte Berger-Höger
Faculty of Human and Health Sciences
Institute of Public Health and Nursing Research (IPP)
Department of Evaluation and Implementation Research in Nursing Science
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-68900
Email: birte.berger-hoegerprotect me ?!uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de
