The racialization of disease: a qualitative and quantitative analysis of race and ethnicity in biomedical research

For several years, there have been published guidelines covering the use of the term “race” and “ethnicity” in biomedical research. When used inappropriately, the linkage of race or ethnic categories to cause and/or effect in biomedical research can have significant negative impacts on individuals and populations. Genetic research rejects any strong biological association/difference, between or within races. This research will determine to what degree the recommendations for the use of "race" and "ethnicity" within biomedical publications has been followed. Papers, retrieved through Pubmed were selected if they used of the terms “race” or “ethnicity” in the title or abstract, These selected papers were then examined to determine the basis for assigning population to racial categories (inclusion/exclusion), the reasons for selecting the group(s), the disease by organ system and the association made to medical outcome.. The analysis of the publications revealed that none of 205 surveyed papers defined race while 67% of the papers associated a medical outcome to race. This research suggests that despite guidelines for the use of the terms “race” and “ethnicity”, researchers and editors are neither using nor enforcing the use of them respectively. Further research should use alternative selection criteria and larger sample size to confirm these findings