Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2007 Sep;4(9):e287.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0040287.

Racial categories in medicine: a failure of evidence-based practice?

George T H Ellison  1 , Andrew Smart, Richard Tutton, Simon M Outram, Richard Ashcroft, Paul Martin
Affiliations
Review

Racial categories in medicine: a failure of evidence-based practice?

George T H Ellison et al. PLoS Med. 2007 Sep.

Abstract

Race and ethnicity are imprecise markers of the genotypic and sociocultural determinants of health, argue the authors.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Comment on

References

    1. Braun L, Fausto-Sterling A, Fullwiley D, Hammonds EM, Nelson A, et al. Racial categories in medical practice: How useful are they? PLoS Med. 2007;4:e271. doi: . - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Beach MC, Rosner M, Cooper LA, Duggan PS, Shatzer J. Can patient-centered attitudes reduce racial and ethnic disparities in care? Acad Med. 2007;82:193–198. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ellison GTH. Contemporary definitions of ‘race’ and ‘ethnicity’ in medical dictionaries. Ann Hum Biol. 1999;27:104–105.
    1. Smart A, Tutton R, Martin P, Ellison GTH, Ashcroft R. The standardisation of race and ethnicity in biomedical science editorials and UK biobanks. Soc Stud Sci. 2007. In press. - PubMed
    1. Outram SM, Ellison GTH. Anthropological insights into the use of race/ethnicity to explore genetic determinants of disparities in health. J Biosoc Sci. 2005;38:83–102. - PubMed