Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 23, 2025

A Novel Method for Involving Women of Color at High Risk for Preterm Birth in Research Priority Setting
Published on: January 12, 2018
Racial and ethnic distribution of US randomized controlled trials in obstetrics: a retrospective review
Yuzuru Anzai1, Noel Cercizi2, Yifei Wu2
1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Lenox Hill Hospital/Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, New York, NY, USA.
Objectives:
To determine the racial and ethnic compositions of the participants in obstetric randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and compare them to the US general population.
Methods:
RCTs published in two premier US journals, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Obstetrics and Gynecology from January 2010 to April 2020 were analyzed. The racial and ethnic distributions of the study participants were extracted and expressed as percentages for each article. Obstetrics articles were selected and then further divided into subcategories. Statistical analyses were performed on racial and ethnicity representation in each subcategory compared to a US population norm.
Results:
Overall, a wide variation of racial and ethnic distribution was noted among studies. However, statistically significant overrepresentation of Non-Hispanic Black population and underrepresentation of White and Asian races were noted while Hispanic population's representation was comparable to the US general population. This observation was persistent across most of the subcategories.
Conclusions:
RCTs in the field of Obstetrics showed an overrepresentation of Black population. This observation was unique when we consider the previous reports in other fields of medicine. These findings should be taken into consideration when interpreting the results of RCTs conducted in US.
More Related Videos
06:55Inverse Probability of Treatment Weighting Propensity Score using the Military Health System Data Repository and National Death Index
Published on: January 8, 2020
04:53A Clinical Trial Assessing the Safety, Efficacy, and Delivery of Olive-Oil-Based Three-Chamber Bags for Parenteral Nutrition
Published on: September 20, 2019
Related Concept Videos
Randomized Experiments
Simple randomization
Simple...
Regression Toward the Mean
Types of Biopharmaceutical Studies: Controlled and Non-Controlled Approaches
Non-controlled studies, commonly employed for initial exploration, lack a control group, rendering them susceptible to biases and external influences. In contrast,...
Bias in Epidemiological Studies
Hazard Ratio
For example, in a clinical trial...
Clinical Trials
There are four phases in a clinical trial. A phase one...