This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on ISI (8)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal

Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2001;155:972-973.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

The editorial in the February 2001 issue of the ARCHIVES regarding the terms race and ethnicity is welcome.¹ It is indeed past time for the medical and scientific communities to lose the habit of uncritically using racial categories, which have no basis in biology. I propose a different emphasis, however. Race and ethnicity demand more, not less, attention in health services and public health research.

True, ethnicity has multiple dimensions, some of which the editorial touches on—shared language, shared sociocultural beliefs, and group identity—and ethnic labelers, like biological taxonomists, can be lumpers or splitters. Yet, although an individual's ethnic identity may be complex, fluid, or ambiguous, ethnicity is a phenomenon social scientists can define and measure. While the editorialists view medicine and patient care as resting on "underlying biological science,"¹ I find this formulation incomplete. Physicians care for people who are social as well as biological beings.

Ethnic identity is . . . [Full Text of this Article]

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Disparities in Access to Essential New Prescription Drugs between Non-Hispanic Whites, Non-Hispanic Blacks, and Hispanic Whites.
Wang et al.
Med Care Res Rev 2006;63:742-763.
ABSTRACT  

Longitudinal Trends in Race/Ethnic Disparities in Leading Health Indicators From Adolescence to Young Adulthood
Harris et al.
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2006;160:74-81.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Race and Ethnicity: Vital constructs for diabetes research
Karter
Diabetes Care 2003;26:2189-2193.
FULL TEXT  

Use of Race and Ethnicity in Biomedical Publication
Kaplan and Bennett
JAMA 2003;289:2709-2716.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Intrauterine Exposure to Infection and Risk of Cerebral Palsy in Very Preterm Infants
Grether et al.
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2003;157:26-32.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT