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The relevance of gender as a social determinant of health and its role in the production of health inequalities is now broadly acknowledged.
However, the plethora of existing approaches to capture gender, which often stem from disciplines outside of epidemiology, makes it difficult to assess their practicality and relevance for a given research purpose.
We conducted a scoping review to 1 map the evidence of how gender can be operationalised in quantitative epidemiology and 2 design a tool to critically evaluate the measures identified. Eligible sources described the quantitative operationalisation of the social dimension of gender. With the help of a newly developed checklist, we assessed their relevance from an analytical perspective e. Gender measures principally assessed gender roles and norms, gender-based discrimination and violence, and structural gender in equality.
Of the measures included in this review, the majority lacked theoretical foundation, and tended to reinforce the binary understanding of gender through stereotypes of femininity and masculinity. Only few measures allowed for an intersectional approach and a multilevel understanding of gender mechanisms. From a practical point of view, gender measures demonstrated potential for use in varied populations and contexts.
