Patients in the U.S. experience notable differences in health outcomes across racial groups, but new research aims to shift the conversation by examining how researchers themselves account for these differences. Health equity aims to achieve the highest level of health for all people. It requires valuing everyone equally and fully acknowledging the links between health disparities and systemic racism. This is especially important in medical research, since researchers may unknowingly or unintentionally propagate harmful narratives and stereotypes of biological characteristics or cultural inferiority.
This new paper provides recommendations on how researchers can more appropriately engage in quantitative scientific inquiry to better understand the impact of racism on adverse health outcomes. These recommendations include applying appropriate theoretical frameworks that accurately explain how social-structural factors might interact with a disease to produce results most important for achieving health equity; drawing upon Black, Indigenous, Latine and other community consults as experts to inform public health research; measuring elements of racism in research in both new and secondary datasets; and elevating Black, Latine and Indigenous scholars to leadership positions to conduct racial health equity research.
Conceptualizing, Contextualizing, and Operationalizing Race in Quantitative Health Sciences Research
Elle Lett, PhD, MBiostat, MA, et al
Center for Health Equity Advancement, Perelman School of Medicine, and the Palliative and Advanced Illness Research (PAIR) Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Center for Applied Transgender Studies, Chicago, Illinois
https://www.doi.org/10.1370/afm.2792
The Annals of Family Medicine