Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T21:46:22.513Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Race and Ethnicity: Responsible Use from Epidemiological and Public Health Perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Raj Bhopal
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Race and ethnicity are closely related, contentious concepts that have been abused and misinterpreted through history, but have a vast potential for good, at least in the health sciences. This article is not intending to elaborate on the conceptual foundations of race and ethnicity; I have addressed that elsewhere and summarized my stance in the glossary reprinted below in the Appendix. The terminology used here follows the glossary. Assuming that the conceptual foundations of my stance are reasonable, the questions addressed here focus on public health and its primary health science, epidemiology, in a European context. The questions are simple ones:

  1. 1. In epidemiology and public health what are we trying to achieve when we use the concepts of race and ethnicity?

  2. 2. What would we lose by rejecting these concepts?

  3. 3. If we do not reject them, how do we put the concepts into operation to help achieve our goals?

  4. 4. What practical actions can result from the application of these concepts in order to improve the health and well-being of populations?

Type
Symposium
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 34 , Issue 3 , Fall 2006 , pp. 500 - 507
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bhopal, R., “Glossary of Terms Relating to Ethnicity and Race: For Refection and Debate,” Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health 58 (2004): 331–45.Google Scholar
The Oxford Dictionary of Current English (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998).Google Scholar
Wild, S. and McKeigue, P., “Cross Sectional Analysis of Mortality by Country of Birth in England and Wales, 1970–92,” British Medical Journal 314 (1997): 705–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Senior, P. A. and Bhopal, R. S., “Ethnicity as a Variable in Epidemiological Research,” British Medical Journal 309 (1994): 327–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Agyemang, C. Bhopal, R. S., and Bruijneels, M., “Negro, Black, Black African, Caribbean, African American or What? Labelling African Origin Populations in the Health Arena in the 21st Century,” Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 59 (2005): 1014–1018.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bhopal, R. S. Phillimore, P. Kohli, H. S., “Inappropriate use of the Term ‘Asian’: An Obstacle to Ethnicity and Health Research,” Journal of Public Health 13 (1991): 244–246.Google Scholar
Bhopal, , supra note 1; Senior, and Bhopal, , supra note 4; Agyemang, Bhopal, and Bruijneels, , supra note 5.Google Scholar
National Institutes of Health, Strategic Research Plan to Reduce and Ultimately Eliminate Health Disparities (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2000): 1–4468.Google Scholar
Hunt, S. and Bhopal, R., “Self Report in Clinical and Epidemiological Studies with Non-English Speakers: The Challenge of Language and Culture,” Journal Epidemiology & Community Health 58 (2004): 618–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rahemtulla, T. and Bhopal, R., “Pharmacogenetics and Ethnically Targeted Therapies,” British Medical Journal 330 (2005): 1036–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacPherson, W., The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report (London: The Stationery Office, 1999).Google Scholar
Home Office, Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000: New Laws for a Successful Multi-Racial Britain (London: Home Office Communication Directorate, 2001): 7–63.Google Scholar
Commission for Racial Equality, available at <http://www.cre.gov.uk/>..>Google Scholar
Scottish Executive Health Department, Fair for All: Working Together Towards Culturally-Competent Services, NHS HDL (Edinburgh: Scottish Executive, 2002): 51, available at <http://www.phis.org.uk/pdf.pl?fle=pdf/FAIR%20FOR%20ALL%20-%20SEHD%20DOCUMENT%20(June%202002)1.pdf> (last visited April 27, 2006).+(last+visited+April+27,+2006).>Google Scholar
National Resource Centre for Ethnic Minority Health, Scotland, available at <http://www.nrcemh.nhsscotland.com/>..>Google Scholar
Gill, P. S. Kai, J. Bhopal, R. S. and Wild, S., “Health Care Needs Assessment: Black and Minority Ethnic Groups,” in Raftery, J., ed., Health Care Needs Assessment: The Epidemiologically Based Needs Assessment Reviews 3rd ed. (Abingdon: Radcliffe Medical Press, forthcoming 2005), available at <http://hcna.radcliffe-oxford.com/bemgframe.htm> (last visited April 27, 2006).Google Scholar
Bhopal, , supra note 1.Google Scholar
Id.Google Scholar