Adequate statistical power in clinical trials is associated with the combination of a male first author and a female last author

Clinical trials have a vital role in ensuring the safety and efficacy of new treatments and interventions in medicine. A key characteristic of a clinical trial is its statistical power. Here we investigate whether the statistical power of a trial is related to the gender of first and last authors on the paper reporting the results of the trial. Based on an analysis of 31,873 clinical trials published between 1974 and 2017, we find that adequate statistical power was most often present in clinical trials with a male first author and a female last author (20.6%, 95% confidence interval 19.4-21.8%), and that this figure was significantly higher than the percentage for other gender combinations (12.5-13.5%; P