Recommendations for Reporting Research About Racial Disparities in Medical and Scientific Journals

Abstract

Research investigating racial disparities in health care and health outcomes is critically important to designing effective interventions to improve health for all.Knowing the demographic characteristics of the study population of interest is a key step in ensuring generalizable research and appropriate interpretation of data.Despite good intentions, errors are often made in the presentation and interpretation of findings in racial disparity research.These errors have high stakes: research reports have directly contributed to systemic health inequities through the perpetuation or creation of mistruths and race-based assumptions and lack of presentation of rigorous research strategies aimed at dismantling inequities. 1,2thodological errors continue to be made, including the misinterpretation of racerelated findings, inappropriate use of race as a variable, and the study of homogenous, nonrepresentative patient groups.These have led readers within and outside of medicine to believe that racially minoritized people have innate characteristics-including within their genetic makeup-that predispose them to poor health and to make recommendations for care based on incorrect assumptions and methods.Missteps such as these have similarly occurred when studying ethnicity, but it is critical that race and ethnicity are not conflated.Race and ethnicity as dynamic social constructs are global phenomena, with changing definitions that are influenced by sociopolitical, economic, geographic, and cultural drivers.Racial and ethnic categorizations were used in Europe as far back as the 15th century to justify structurally discriminatory practices, such as the trans-Atlantic slave trade and anti-Semitic laws and policies-a history that continues to impact what race and ethnicity represent today in world regions impacted by European colonialism. 3,4In the US, racial categorization was codified in 1790 for the first national census, propelled by economic and political forces. 5At that time, 3 racial categories

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