scholarly journals Persisting problems related to race and ethnicity in public health and epidemiology research

2013 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Claude Moubarac
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Disparities ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Human Diversity ◽  
Racial Categories ◽  
Inappropriate Use ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
Race And Health ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Epidemiology And Public Health

A recent and comprehensive review of the use of race and ethnicity in research that address health disparities in epidemiology and public health is provided. First it is described the theoretical basis upon which race and ethnicity differ drawing from previous work in anthropology, social science and public health. Second, it is presented a review of 280 articles published in high impacts factor journals in regards to public health and epidemiology from 2009-2011. An analytical grid enabled the examination of conceptual, theoretical and methodological questions related to the use of both concepts. The majority of articles reviewed were grounded in a theoretical framework and provided interpretations from various models. However, key problems identified include a) a failure from researchers to differentiate between the concepts of race and ethnicity; b) an inappropriate use of racial categories to ascribe ethnicity; c) a lack of transparency in the methods used to assess both concepts; and d) failure to address limits associated with the construction of racial or ethnic taxonomies and their use. In conclusion, future studies examining health disparities should clearly establish the distinction between race and ethnicity, develop theoretically driven research and address specific questions about the relationships between race, ethnicity and health. One argue that one way to think about ethnicity, race and health is to dichotomize research into two sets of questions about the relationship between human diversity and health.

scholarly journals Race, ethnicity, and racism in the nutrition literature: an update for 2020

2020 ◽  
Vol 112 (6) ◽  
pp. 1409-1414
Author(s):  
Christopher P Duggan ◽  
Anura Kurpad ◽  
Fatima C Stanford ◽  
Bruno Sunguya ◽  
Jonathan C Wells
Keyword(s):  
Social Determinants Of Health ◽  
Social Determinants ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Dietary Pattern ◽  
Social Disparities ◽  
Racial Categories ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
The Us ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
Comprehensive Framework

ABSTRACT Social disparities in the US and elsewhere have been terribly highlighted by the current COVID-19 pandemic but also an outbreak of state-sponsored violence. The field of nutrition, like other areas of science, has commonly used ‘race’ to describe research participants and populations, without the recognition that race is a social, not a biologic, construct. We review the limitations of classifying participants by race, and recommend a series of steps for authors, researchers and policymakers to consider when producing and reading the nutrition literature. We recommend that biomedical researchers, especially those in the field of nutrition, abandon the use of racial categories to explain biologic phenomena but instead rely on a more comprehensive framework of ethnicity; that authors consider not just race and ethnicity but many social determinants of health, including experienced racism; that race and ethnicity not be conflated; that dietary pattern descriptions inform ethnicity descriptions; and that depersonalizating language be avoided.

scholarly journals Linking Sleep to Hypertension: Greater Risk for Blacks

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Pandey ◽  
N. Williams ◽  
M. Donat ◽  
M. Ceide ◽  
P. Brimah ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sleep Duration ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Insufficient Sleep ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Household Interview ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
Age Range ◽  
The Relationship

Background. Evidence suggests that insufficient sleep duration is associated with an increased likelihood for hypertension. Both short (<6 hours) and long (>8 hour) sleep durations as well as hypertension are more prevalent among blacks than among whites. This study examined associations between sleep duration and hypertension, considering differential effects of race and ethnicity among black and white Americans.Methods. Data came from a cross-sectional household interview with 25,352 Americans (age range: 18–85 years).Results. Both white and black short sleepers had a greater likelihood of reporting hypertension than those who reported sleeping 6 to 8 hours. Unadjusted logistic regression analysis exploring the race/ethnicity interactions between insufficient sleep and hypertension indicated that black short (<6 hours) and long (>8 hours) sleepers were more likely to report hypertension than their white counterparts (OR = 1.34 and 1.37, resp.;P<0.01). Significant interactions of insufficient sleep with race/ethnicity were observed even after adjusting to effects of age, sex, income, education, body mass index, alcohol use, smoking, emotional distress, diabetes, coronary heart disease, and stroke.Conclusion. Results suggest that the race/ethnicity interaction is a significant mediator in the relationship between insufficient sleep and likelihood of having a diagnosis of hypertension.

scholarly journals Description of color/race in Brazilian biomedical research

2012 ◽  
Vol 130 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Veronica Catonho Ribeiro ◽  
Luzitano Brandão Ferreira
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Biomedical Research ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Skin Color ◽  
Descriptive Study ◽  
Systematic Search ◽  
Scientific Journals ◽  
Race Ethnicity

CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: Over recent years, the terms race and ethnicity have been used to ascertain inequities in public health. However, this use depends on the quality of the data available. This study aimed to investigate the description of color/race in Brazilian scientific journals within the field of biomedicine. DESIGN AND SETTING: Descriptive study with systematic search for scientific articles in the SciELO Brazil database. METHODS: A wide-ranging systematic search for original articles involving humans, published in 32 Brazilian biomedical scientific journals in the SciELO Brazil database between January and December 2008, was performed. Articles in which the race/ethnicity of the participants was identified were analyzed. RESULTS: In total, 1,180 articles were analyzed. The terms for describing race or ethnicity were often ambiguous and vague. Descriptions of race or ethnicity occurred in 159 articles (13.4%), but only in 42 (26.4%) was there a description of how individuals were identified. In these, race and ethnicity were used almost interchangeably and definition was according to skin color (71.4%), ancestry (19.0%) and self-definition (9.6%). Twenty-two races or ethnicities were cited, and the most common were white (37.3%), black (19.7%), mixed (12.9%), nonwhite (8.1%) and yellow (8.1%). CONCLUSION: The absence of descriptions of parameters for defining race, as well as the use of vague and ambiguous terms, may hamper and even prevent comparisons between human groups and the use of these data to ascertain inequities in healthcare.

After the Traffic Stops: Officer Characteristics and Enforcement Actions

2006 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Billy R Close ◽  
Patrick L Mason
Keyword(s):  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Economic Model ◽  
Public Safety ◽  
Traffic Stops ◽  
Police Practice ◽  
Enforcement Action ◽  
Police Agencies ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract This study examines the relationship between officer characteristics and racially biased policing. In particular, we explore the relationship between the officer's race/ethnicity and the nature and extent of excessive enforcement actions by race. We derive an efficient enforcement action theorem which suggests that if public safety is the sole concern of police agencies, then racially and ethnically biased policing will not be a persistent element of police practice. Alternatively, our political economic model suggests that police apply more severe sanctions against other-group drivers. Our results show that the race and ethnicity of officers have a significant and substantive impact on the intensity of enforcement actions by the Florida Highway Patrol against stopped drivers.

Race and Ethnicity: Responsible Use from Epidemiological and Public Health Perspectives

2006 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 500-507 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raj Bhopal
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Health Science ◽  
List Type ◽  
Type Number ◽  
Primary Health ◽  
Conceptual Foundations ◽  
Health And Well Being ◽  
Epidemiology And Public Health

Race and ethnicity are closely related, contentious concepts that have been abused and misinterpreted through history, but have a vast potential for good, at least in the health sciences. This article is not intending to elaborate on the conceptual foundations of race and ethnicity; I have addressed that elsewhere and summarized my stance in the glossary reprinted below in the Appendix. The terminology used here follows the glossary. Assuming that the conceptual foundations of my stance are reasonable, the questions addressed here focus on public health and its primary health science, epidemiology, in a European context. The questions are simple ones:1.In epidemiology and public health what are we trying to achieve when we use the concepts of race and ethnicity?2.What would we lose by rejecting these concepts?3.If we do not reject them, how do we put the concepts into operation to help achieve our goals?4.What practical actions can result from the application of these concepts in order to improve the health and well-being of populations?

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