(99) Progress Check: Impact of public diversity statement on publication content

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic further highlighted racism as a public health crisis in America. In response, medical organizations committed to diversification of research and the peer review process. Journal of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology (JPAG) released a ‘call for submissions’ studying the health impacts of social injustice and racism. The objective of this study was to assess the state of the research addressing dimensions of diversity published by JPAG before and after the published call for submissions.

Methods: A systematic review was conducted following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. An adapted MEDLINE®/PubMed® Health Disparities and Minority Health Search Strategy was used. Studies were included if they were published by JPAG from 8/1/2018 - 7/31/2020 and 8/1/2021 - 7/31/2023​ and met the associated inclusion/exclusion criteria. The search yielded 43 studies, 41 underwent full text evaluation and were included for review. Abstracts were reviewed by two blinded, independent reviewers using Rayyan.AI to confirm study eligibility. Study met IRB exempt status by the University of Texas Austin

Results: No significant differences in proportion of DEI studies published by JPAG (pre-call 6.4%, post-call 8.2%, p = 0.527). More studies reported race post-call for submissions (42%) than pre-call (72%), however this difference was not statistically different (p = 0.096). There was an increase in studies published from the South (pre-call n=0 vs post-call n=7 (32%) , p = 0.022). Ethnicity reporting increased post-call for submissions (before 31% vs after 68%, p = 0.043). Rates of SES reporting was similar between the two cohorts.

Conclusions: Despite a national call for submissions, little has changed in the diversity profile of articles published by JPAG. Continued efforts, such as ‘progress checks’ are necessary to monitor the impact of interventions to improve diversity and health equity in medicine. Standardization of demographic reporting may be a valuable adjunct to better contextualize and interpret data across populations.