Segregated health statistics perpetuate racial stereotypes
- 17 May 1997
- Vol. 314 (7092) , 1485
- https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.314.7092.1485
Abstract
Editor—Unlike Alexander R P Walker, we welcome the desegregation of health statistics in South Africa1 and believe that the routine use of ethnic or racial categories in health research is often ill conceived, misleading, and divisive.2 It is ill conceived because using nationality and physical characteristics (such as African, European, black, and white) to differentiate between various groups tends to reinforce the discredited view that geographically isolated and genetically distinct human races exist. It is misleading because using these categories to assess disparities in health …Keywords
This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit:
- Measuring Social Class in US Public Health Research: Concepts, Methodologies, and GuidelinesAnnual Review of Public Health, 1997