Representation of Women in Contemporary Kidney Transplant Trials

Women are often underrepresented in clinical trials. It is unclear if this applies to trials in kidney transplant (KT) and whether the intervention or trial focus influences this. In this study, the weighted participation-to-prevalence ratio (PPR) for women enrollees in KT trials was determined for leading medical transplant or kidney journals between 2018 and 2023 using meta-regression overall and in three sensitivity analyses by: 1) Whether the intervention involved immunosuppression; 2) Area of trial focus; rejection, cardiometabolic, infection, lifestyle, surgical; 3) Whether the intervention was medical/surgical or social/behavioral. Overall, 33.7% of participants in 24 trials were women. The overall pooled PPR for the included trials was 0.80, 95% CI 0.76–0.85, with significant heterogeneity between trials (I2 56.6%, p-value < 0.001). Women had a lower PPR when the trial involved immunosuppression (PPR 0.77, 95% CI 0.72–0.82) than when it did not (PPR 0.86, 95% CI 0.80–0.94) and were less likely to participate in trials with a medical/surgical versus behavioral intervention; the lowest PPR for women was in studies examining rejection risk (PPR 0.75, 95% CI 0.70–0.81). There is better representation of women in KT trials compared to other medical disciplines, however women remain underrepresented in transplant trials examining immunosuppression and rejection.