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  • Title: Systematic review identified suboptimal reporting and use of race/ethnicity in general medical journals.
    Author: Ma IW, Khan NA, Kang A, Zalunardo N, Palepu A.
    Journal: J Clin Epidemiol; 2007 Jun; 60(6):572-8. PubMed ID: 17493512.
    Abstract:
    OBJECTIVE: Methods of reporting of race/ethnicity in biomedical journals are largely unknown. We aimed to systematically examine the reporting practice of race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status (SES) information in biomedical journals. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: All primary research articles that reported more than one racial/ethnic group, published between 1999 and 2003 in Annals of Internal Medicine, JAMA, The Lancet, and The New England Journal of Medicine (n=1,152) were reviewed for their use of race/ethnicity and SES variables. Interobserver reliability was assessed by independent abstraction of 10% of study sample. RESULTS: There were a total of 116 different terms used to describe various racial/ethnic groups. Assignment of race/ethnicity by self-report was stated in only 13% of papers; 52% of papers identifying race/ethnicity of study participants did not report any SES information. Overall, 16% of articles explicitly stated reasons for collecting information on race/ethnicity. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that race/ethnicity information was suboptimally reported in general medical journals. Terminology used was highly variable. Method of establishing racial/ethnic categories, rationale for collecting race/ethnicity data, and SES information were underreported.
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