Journal
ANNALS OF FAMILY MEDICINE
Volume 20, Issue 2, Pages 157-163Publisher
ANNALS FAMILY MEDICINE
DOI: 10.1370/afm.2792
Keywords
racism; race; inequity; disparity; intersectionality; epidemiology; community/public health
Categories
Funding
- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Research Scholars Program
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Differences in health outcomes across racial groups are commonly found in health disparities research. However, these studies often fail to connect these disparities with systemic racism, unintentionally supporting harmful narratives of biological essentialism or cultural inferiority. This paper highlights the pitfalls in quantitative population health research and provides recommendations for understanding racial health inequities appropriately.
Differences in health outcomes across racial groups are among the most commonly reported findings in health disparities research. Often, these studies do not explicitly connect observed disparities to mechanisms of systemic racism that drive adverse health outcomes among racialized and other marginalized groups in the United States. Without this connection, investigators inadvertently support harmful narratives of biologic essentialism or cultural inferiority that pathologize racial identities and inhibit health equity. This paper outlines pitfalls in the conceptualization, contextualization, and operationalization of race in quantitative population health research and provides recommendations on how to appropriately engage in scientific inquiry aimed at understanding racial health inequities. Race should not be used as a measure of biologic difference, but rather as a proxy for exposure to systemic racism. Future studies should go beyond this proxy use and directly measure racism and its health impacts.
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