Sexadjusted

Sexadjusted is a term used to describe values that have been adjusted to account for the influence of sex, typically by standardizing or modeling on the distribution of sex or by adjusting for sex in statistical analyses. In epidemiology and public health, sex-adjustment enables fair comparisons between populations that differ in sex composition or helps isolate effects that are not driven solely by sex.

Common methods for sex adjustment include direct standardization, indirect standardization, and regression adjustment. Direct standardization involves calculating sex-specific rates in each population and applying them to a common, standard sex distribution to produce a single adjusted rate. Indirect standardization applies a standard set of sex-specific rates to the target population to estimate expected counts, which can be used to compute standardized ratios. Regression methods incorporate sex as a covariate (for example in logistic or Poisson regression) or allow for sex-by-variable interaction terms, providing adjusted effect estimates while controlling for sex.

Applications of sex-adjusted figures include comparing disease incidence, mortality, or treatment outcomes across populations with different sex structures, or adjusting surveillance data to reflect a neutral sex distribution. They help prevent biased conclusions when sex is a confounder or a risk factor.

Limitations include dependence on the choice of a standard population or model specification, potential masking of important sex-specific differences, and the possibility of residual confounding from other correlated factors. Sex-adjusted figures are descriptive tools that aid comparison and interpretation but do not by themselves establish causal effects. They are often complemented by sex-specific analyses and by analyses that disaggregate data by sex when appropriate.