Men and women are different, we all know that, but a team at the University of Aberdeen are concerned that these gender differences may impact upon the evaluation of osteoarthritis treatment.

Assessing the success of treatments for osteoarthritis often involves administering patient questionnaires. Dr Pollard of the University of Aberdeen’s College of Life Sciences and Medicine argues that some questions may skew results, giving an inaccurate picture of the effectiveness of treatment.  Dr Pollard explains:

“The classic example is a question to assess how depressed people are which asks ‘Do you cry a lot?’.  Women may say ‘yes’ to this question when they are only mildly depressed, but men who say ‘yes’ are usually more depressed”

The Arthritis Research Campaign (ARC) has now awarded the team a grant of £122,000 over three years to carry out research which should result in more accurate assessment of patient outcomes.  The study will look at how gender, socio-economic, demographic and clinical factors affect the way people respond to questions.  Dr Pollard continues:

“This is very important as many decisions about the treatments patients with osteoarthritis receive are based on results from such questionnaires.  We hope the funding from the Arthritis Research Campaign will enable us to improve the accuracy of these questions and ultimately the treatment patients receive.”

Tags: gender differences in osteoarthritis, osteoarthritis, osteoarthritis research

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