Table 2

Consideration of sex differences in (current and previous) guidelines

Section	Guideline	NHG practical guideline for functional disorders of the thyroid gland	NHG practical guideline for thyroid gland disorders	NHG practical guideline for constitutional eczema	NHG practical guideline for constitutional eczema	NHG practical guideline for COPD: treatment	Draft practical guideline for COPD	Draft practical guideline for hereditary colon carcinoma	Guideline for rheumatoid arthritis	Multidisciplinary guideline for alcohol abuse and dependence
	Year of publication	1996	2006	1996	2006	2001	Draft version 2007	Draft version 2007	Draft version 2007	Draft version 2006
	Abbreviation	THYR1	THYR2	ECZ1	ECZ2	COPD1^*	COPD2	COL	RA	ALC
Introduction	Subtotal sex-specific statements	13	27	0	5	0	11	9	4	12
Introduction	Concerning reproductive health^†	0	7	0	0	0	0	0	4	0
Diagnosis
Underlying evidence	Subtotal sex-specific statements	10	2	0	0	–	6	10	0	180
Underlying evidence	Concerning reproductive health	7	2	0	0	–	0	0	0	33
Recommendations	Subtotal sex-specific statements in recommendations/total	2/30	3/40	0/15	0/18	–	0/24	3/22	0/2	10/40
	Concerning reproductive health	2	3	0	0	–	0	0	0	8
Therapy
Underlying evidence	Subtotal sex-specific statements	11	26	0	7	8	3	71^‡	129	23
Underlying evidence	Concerning reproductive health	7	22	0	6	0	0	2	123^§	1
Recommendations	Subtotal sex-specific statements in recom-mendations/total	2/64	13/120	0/52	0/59	0/116	0/97	4/80	13/98	0/45
Recommendations	Concerning reproductive health	2	13	0	0	0	0	0	13	0
Total sex-specific statements in underlying evidence		34	55	0	12	8	20	90	133	203
Total sex-specific statements in recommendations		4	15	0	0	0	0	7	13	10
Total of all statements in recommendations		94	160	52	59	116	121	102	100	95

COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
↵* This guideline focuses on treatment.
↵† Reproduction: abbreviation for pregnancy, breastfeeding and other aspects of reproduction.
↵‡ This section contains a separate subsection on surveillance of endometrial and ovarian cancers.
↵§ This section contains a separate subsection on pregnancy and breastfeeding.