Sullivan Sarah, Posada Ana, Hawkins Matthew, Higueras Giomar
Touro University California, Mare Island, Vallejo, CA, USA.
Mhealth. 2020 Oct 5;6:37. doi: 10.21037/mhealth-2019-di-12. eCollection 2020.
Gender disparities exist worldwide related to female representation in digital health initiatives especially in low and middle income countries (LMICs). Upstream approaches and policy implementation has been effective in some countries to reduce the gender gap in the areas of political and sector leadership. At an international digital health conference in Bolivia, all-male expert panels presented their research and innovations to audiences from the Bolivian national and regional health departments and private and non-governmental organization heath leaders.
An in-depth qualitative analysis of participant perspectives related to the absence of female presenters at this digital health conference in Bolivia was performed. Using a cross-sectional research design, the questionnaire rated the respondents' satisfaction using Likert scales and their perspectives using open-ended questions. A multidisciplinary team of coders reviewed the respondents' responses in detail and developed general themes.
The sample consisted of 80 respondents who completed the questionnaire from the 115 people attending the conference, giving a 70% response rate (80/115). Respondents were broadly represented in terms of gender, age, occupation and experience using digital health tools. The code structure contained five primary codes each reflecting sets of ideas and possible solutions for gender equality in science and health technology in Bolivia. The five recurrent themes, ranked from the most common mentioned to the least common, were: (I) opportunities and incentives (38%); (II) indifference (23%); (III) role models (18%); (IV) capacity strengthening and empowerment (15%); (V) norms and policies (7%).
The results of this study can be useful for preparing a more representative digital health field in Bolivia overtime. Conference respondents provide key recommendations to reduce gender inequality at digital health conferences and in the field. This study provides evidence from Bolivian health workers and officials on their perspectives related to the absence of female presenters at an international digital health conference and their suggestions for optimizing female participation and leadership at conferences and in the digital health field going forward.
全球范围内存在性别差异，尤其是在低收入和中等收入国家（LMICs）的数字健康倡议中，女性代表比例较低。上游方法和政策实施在一些国家已有效减少了政治和部门领导领域的性别差距。在玻利维亚举行的一次国际数字健康会议上，全男性专家小组向玻利维亚国家和地区卫生部门以及私营和非政府组织的卫生领导人展示了他们的研究和创新成果。
对玻利维亚这次数字健康会议上缺乏女性演讲者这一情况的参与者观点进行了深入定性分析。采用横断面研究设计，问卷使用李克特量表对受访者的满意度进行评分，并通过开放式问题了解他们的观点。一个多学科编码团队详细审查了受访者的回答并制定了一般主题。
样本包括80名完成问卷的受访者，他们来自参加会议的115人，回复率为70%（80/115）。受访者在性别、年龄、职业以及使用数字健康工具的经验方面具有广泛代表性。编码结构包含五个主要编码，每个编码都反映了玻利维亚科学和健康技术领域性别平等的一系列想法和可能的解决方案。五个反复出现的主题，按提及频率从高到低排列为：（I）机会和激励措施（38%）；（II）冷漠（23%）；（III）榜样（18%）；（IV）能力加强和赋权（15%）；（V）规范和政策（7%）。
这项研究的结果可能有助于随着时间推移在玻利维亚打造一个更具代表性的数字健康领域。会议受访者为减少数字健康会议及该领域的性别不平等提供了关键建议。本研究提供了玻利维亚卫生工作者和官员对于国际数字健康会议上缺乏女性演讲者的看法，以及他们对未来优化会议和数字健康领域女性参与及领导地位的建议。
