Race adjustment

Race adjustment is a statistical method used in medical and epidemiological research to account for differences in disease prevalence and outcomes among different racial and ethnic groups. It is a controversial practice, with critics arguing that it can obscure health disparities and reinforce racial stereotypes.

Overview

Race adjustment involves adjusting statistical analyses for race or ethnicity, typically by including race as a covariate in statistical models. This is done to control for potential confounding by race, given that race is often associated with both exposure and outcome in studies of health disparities. However, the practice is controversial, with critics arguing that it can obscure true disparities and reinforce harmful racial stereotypes.

Controversy

Critics of race adjustment argue that it can obscure true health disparities by making different racial and ethnic groups appear more similar than they actually are. For example, if a study finds that black people have higher rates of a certain disease than white people, but then adjusts for race in its analysis, the resulting adjusted rates may no longer reflect this disparity. This can make it harder to identify and address health disparities.

In addition, critics argue that race adjustment can reinforce harmful racial stereotypes by implying that race is a biological determinant of health. In reality, many health disparities between racial and ethnic groups are likely due to social and environmental factors, not inherent biological differences.

Alternatives

Some researchers argue for the use of alternative methods to control for confounding by race, such as stratification or matching. These methods can allow for the examination of health disparities within racial and ethnic groups, rather than obscuring these disparities through adjustment.

Others argue for a shift away from the use of race as a variable in health research altogether, advocating instead for the use of more specific measures of social and environmental factors that may contribute to health disparities.

See also

• Epidemiology
• Health disparities
• Race (human categorization)
• Statistical adjustment

References

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