New Report: Four-Year Review of the Use of Race and Ethnicity in Epidemiologic and Public Health Research

A new report published in the American Journal of Epidemiology examines how researchers use race and ethnicity as variable in epidemiologic and public health studies.

In the report, entitled "Four-Year Review of the Use of Race and Ethnicity in Epidemiologic and Public Health Research,", the authors conducted a comprehensive review of 1,198 articles published in the American Journal of Epidemiology and the American Journal of Public Health from 1996 to 1999.

While 77 percent of the articles referred to race or ethnicity, researches often failed to differentiate between the concepts of race and ethnicity. Researches also frequently failed to state the context in which these variables were used, the study methods used to assess the variables, and to discuss significant study results based on race or ethnicity.

The authors said that the report shows that continued professional commitment is needed to ensure the scientific integrity of race and ethnicity as variables.

A free abstract is available online at: www.aje.oupjournals.org/cgi/content/full/159/6/611 or at www.aje.oupjournals.org/cgi/reprint/159/6/611.pdf in PDF format.