The reporting of race and/or ethnicity in the medical literature: a retrospective bibliometric analysis confirmed room for improvement
Objectives - Although the collection of race and/or ethnicity data is an important way to identify and address inequalities in health care provision and disparities in access to treatment, studies examining the extent to which race and/or ethnicity data are reported in the medical literature, and th...
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| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article (Journal) |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
[2020]
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| In: |
Journal of clinical epidemiology
Year: 2019, Volume: 119, Pages: 1-6 |
| ISSN: | 1878-5921 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2019.11.005 |
| Online Access: | Verlag, lizenzpflichtig, Volltext: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2019.11.005 Verlag, lizenzpflichtig, Volltext: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0895435619302446 
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| Author Notes: | Therezia Bokor-Billmann, MD, Ewan A. Langan, MD, Franck Billmann, MD, PhD |
| Summary: | Objectives - Although the collection of race and/or ethnicity data is an important way to identify and address inequalities in health care provision and disparities in access to treatment, studies examining the extent to which race and/or ethnicity data are reported in the medical literature, and the quality of these data, are lacking. Therefore, we sought to objectively determine the quality of reporting of race and/or ethnicity in original medical research papers. - Study Design and Setting - A retrospective bibliometric analysis was used. Two independent investigators analyzed original articles investigating race/ethnicity, published between 2007 and 2018, in the 10 top-ranking academic journals in each of the following categories: general medicine, surgery, and oncology. - Results - A total of 995 original articles were included in our analysis. Only 45 studies (4.52%) provided a formal definition of race/ethnicity, and 8.94% identified the investigator responsible for the classification. While race/ethnicity was a key part of study design in 31.86% of the included investigations, the method used to classify individuals into racial/ethnic groups was described in only 10.25% of articles. In terms of terminology, we identified 81 different race/ethnicity classifications, but these were often imprecise and open to interpretation. - Conclusion - There is significant room for improvement in the collection, reporting, and publishing of data describing ethnicity and/or race in the medical literature. |
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| Item Description: | Published online 9 November 2019 Gesehen am 14.04.2020 |
| Physical Description: | Online Resource |
| ISSN: | 1878-5921 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2019.11.005 |