Leeds Institute of Health Sciences, University of Leeds, UK.
Eur J Public Health. 2013 Jun;23(3):504-10. doi: 10.1093/eurpub/cks028. Epub 2012 May 2.
There is substantial evidence that health and health-care experiences vary along ethnic lines and the need to understand and tackle ethnic health inequalities has repeatedly been highlighted. Research into ethnicity and health raises ethical, theoretical and methodological issues and, as the volume of research in this area grows, so too do concerns regarding its scientific rigour and reporting, and its contribution to reducing inequalities. Guidance may be helpful in encouraging researchers to adopt standard practices in the design, conduct and reporting of research. However, past efforts at introducing such guidance have had limited impact on research practice, and the diversity of disciplinary perspectives on the key challenges and solutions may undermine attempts to derive and promote guiding principles.
A consensus building Delphi exercise--the first of its kind in this area of research practice--was undertaken with leading academics, practitioners and policymakers from a broad range of disciplinary backgrounds to assess whether consensus on key principles could be achieved.
Ten key principles for conducting research on ethnicity and health emerged, covering: the aims of research in this field; how such research should be framed and focused; key design-related considerations; and the direction of future research. Despite some areas of dispute, participants were united by a common concern that the generation and application of research evidence should contribute to better health-care experiences and health outcomes for minority ethnic people.
The principles provide a strong foundation to guide future ethnicity-related research and build a broader international consensus.
有大量证据表明，健康状况和医疗保健体验因种族而有所不同，因此需要理解和解决族裔健康不平等问题。对族裔与健康的研究引发了伦理、理论和方法方面的问题，随着这一领域研究的不断增加，人们对其科学严谨性和报告质量以及对减少不平等的贡献也越来越关注。指导意见可能有助于鼓励研究人员在设计、开展和报告研究时采用标准做法。然而，过去在引入此类指导意见方面的努力对研究实践的影响有限，而且不同学科对关键挑战和解决方案的观点多样性可能会破坏得出和推广指导原则的努力。
与来自广泛学科背景的领先学者、从业者和政策制定者开展了共识建立德尔菲法实践——这是该研究实践领域的首次尝试——以评估在关键原则上是否能够达成共识。
提出了进行族裔与健康研究的 10 项关键原则，涵盖了：该领域研究的目标；如何构建和聚焦此类研究；关键设计相关考虑因素；以及未来研究方向。尽管存在一些争议领域，但参与者的共同关注点是，研究证据的产生和应用应该有助于改善少数民族的医疗保健体验和健康结果。
这些原则为指导未来的族裔相关研究并建立更广泛的国际共识奠定了坚实的基础。
