RT Journal
A1 Weissman A
T1 HOw was 'race' determined?
JF Archives of Internal Medicine
JO Archives of Internal Medicine
YR 1993
FD January 25
VO 153
IS 2
SP 260
OP 260
DO 10.1001/archinte.1993.00410020104012
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archinte.1993.00410020104012
AB Stevens and colleagues1 concern themselves with fat patterning in black and white women. In their description of methods, however, they volunteer that "the only anthropometric variables measured in the first examination were height and weight."1 If this were the case, how could the study have determined which subjects were "black" and which were "white"? The potential importance of dichotomizing subjects by race is often undermined by poor descriptions of methods and definitions used to identify racial categories.2 For example, were subjects in the Charleston Heart Study encouraged or permitted to claim mixed racial heritage, or might subjects have been assigned to such a category by a clerk? Considering the level of detail that Stevens and colleagues provide for measuring chest, abdominal, and midarm girth, one might have expected some specifics pertaining to the racial dichotomy. If race constitutes a valid concept for demographic classification, then it should