Anderson M R, Moscou S
Department of Family Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA.
Fam Med. 1998 Mar;30(3):224-7.
Race and ethnicity are variables frequently used in medical research. However, researchers employ race and ethnicity in different ways and with differing intent. This leads to confusion over the interpretation of racial or ethnic differences. This study sought to determine how race and ethnicity are used in research on infant mortality.
We did a structured literature review of original research related to infant mortality published between January 1995 and June 1996 and indexed in the Core Contents section of MEDLINE.
The majority of articles (54%) mentioned race and ethnicity. US studies mentioned race or ethnicity more than non-US studies (80% versus 22%). Only one study defined the method used to determine the ethnicity of patients; no study defined race or the methodology used in determining patients' race. Researchers primarily used race and ethnicity to describe study populations. Some racial and ethnic identifiers may have been stigmatizing to the subjects studied. The second most common use of race or ethnicity was as a potential confounder. Only one article discussed racism as a contributing factor in infant mortality.
There are several problems and ambiguities in the use of race and ethnicity in clinical research. Researchers who use racial or ethnic categories should do so for specified reasons and adopt clear definitions of the categories used.
种族和民族是医学研究中经常使用的变量。然而，研究人员使用种族和民族的方式不同，意图也不同。这导致对种族或民族差异的解释产生混淆。本研究旨在确定种族和民族在婴儿死亡率研究中是如何被使用的。
我们对1995年1月至1996年6月发表的与婴儿死亡率相关的原创性研究进行了结构化文献综述，这些研究被收录在MEDLINE的核心期刊部分。
大多数文章（54%）提到了种族和民族。美国的研究比非美国的研究更多地提及种族或民族（80%对22%）。只有一项研究定义了用于确定患者民族的方法；没有研究定义种族或用于确定患者种族的方法。研究人员主要使用种族和民族来描述研究人群。一些种族和民族标识符可能对所研究的对象具有污名化作用。种族或民族的第二常见用途是作为潜在的混杂因素。只有一篇文章讨论了种族主义是婴儿死亡率的一个促成因素。
在临床研究中使用种族和民族存在几个问题和模糊之处。使用种族或民族类别的研究人员应该出于特定原因这样做，并对所使用的类别采用明确的定义。
