Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Race and health: basic questions, emerging directions

D R Williams1

  • 1Department of Sociology and the Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 48106-1248, USA.

Annals of Epidemiology
|July 1, 1997
PubMed
Summary

Race is a social construct, not a biological one. Health disparities linked to race necessitate continued research into social, economic, and environmental factors influencing health outcomes.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Evidence for a Spectral Break or Curvature in the Spectrum of Astrophysical Neutrinos from 5 TeV to 10 PeV.

Physical review letters·2026
Same author

Search for Extremely-High-Energy Neutrinos and First Constraints on the Ultrahigh-Energy Cosmic-Ray Proton Fraction with IceCube.

Physical review letters·2025
Same author

Measurement of Atmospheric Neutrino Oscillation Parameters Using Convolutional Neural Networks with 9.3 Years of Data in IceCube DeepCore.

Physical review letters·2025
Same author

Search for an eV-Scale Sterile Neutrino Using Improved High-Energy ν_{μ} Event Reconstruction in IceCube.

Physical review letters·2024
Same author

Observation of Seven Astrophysical Tau Neutrino Candidates with IceCube.

Physical review letters·2024
Same author

Observation of high-energy neutrinos from the Galactic plane.

Science (New York, N.Y.)·2023

Area of Science:

  • Social determinants of health
  • Medical sociology
  • Public health research

Background:

  • Scientific consensus views race as a social, not biological, construct.
  • Racial categories historically reflect and perpetuate social, economic, and political disadvantages.
  • These disadvantages have significant consequences for individual and population well-being.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine the scientific consensus on the conceptualization of race.
  • To identify the importance of analyzing racial differences in health (morbidity and mortality).
  • To provide guidelines for future health research involving race.

Main Methods:

  • Review of scientific dictionaries.
  • Literature review across social science, public health, and medical fields.
  • Analysis of the role of race in health outcomes.

Main Results:

  • Evidence supports race as a social category, not a biological determinant of health.
  • Genotypic variation exists but is not accurately captured by racial classifications.
  • Continued study of racial differences in health is crucial due to the impact of social, economic, and political disadvantages.

Conclusions:

  • Race is often used uncritically as a proxy for unmeasured factors (biological, socioeconomic, sociocultural).
  • Future research should investigate gene-environment interactions and psychosocial adversity's role in health disparities.
  • Focus on clearly defined environmental exposures and individual responses is needed to understand group-specific illness risks.

Related Experiment Videos