Sexual orientation and gender identity reporting in highly cited alcohol research

Purpose This study aimed to measure the frequency of high-quality and transparent sexual orientation and gender identity data collection and reporting in highly cited alcohol use research, using the extant literature to identify community-informed priorities for the measurement of these variables. Methods A single search to identify alcohol use literature was conducted on PubMed with results restricted to primary research articles published between 2015 and 2022. The 200 most highly cited studies from each year were identified and their titles and abstracts reviewed against inclusion criteria following deduplication. Following full-text review and data extraction, the fidelity of the results was verified with a random sample prior to analyses. Results The final sample comprised 580 records. Few studies reported gender identity (n=19; 33.4%) and, of these, 7.2% reported the associated gender identity measure. A two-stage approach to measuring gender was adopted in five studies and 13 studies recorded non-binary gender identities (reported by 0.9% of the whole sample). Nineteen (3.3%) studies reported sexual orientation and more than half of these provided the sexual orientation measure. Five studies adopted a two-step approach to measuring gender identity and open offered a free-text response option. Eight of 20 studies reporting gender identity and sexual orientation measures were classified as sexual and gender minority specialist research. Conclusions Transparent and culturally competent gender identity and sexual orientation reporting is lacking in highly cited alcohol research.