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The Biological Concept of Race and Its Application to Public Health and Epidemiology
365
Citations
0
References
1986
Year
EthnicityRacial Health EquityRace RelationHealth DisparitiesDisease EpidemiologySocial Determinants Of HealthRacial StudyRacial DisparitiesRaceMedical AnthropologyRacial GroupLanguage StudiesPublic HealthSocial MedicineRacial EquityHealth SciencesPhilosophy Of MedicineBiological ConceptEthnic IdentityHealth EquityEpidemiologyApplied Medical AnthropologyGlobal HealthSocial EpidemiologyMedicalizationPublic Health Anthropology
Race is widely used in public health, yet no adequate theoretical construct exists, and the field lags behind other biological sciences in addressing race’s implications for nature‑nurture. The study aims to outline the current anthropological and social perspective on race and apply it to disease epidemiology. The authors apply this perspective to problems of disease epidemiology. Uncritical use of the traditional biological concept of race distorts etiological thinking and hinders effective intervention strategies.
The category of race is widely used in public health. Although its significance may be clear-cut in some practical situations, an adequate theoretical construct for the concept of race does not exist. Public health appears to lag far behind the other biological sciences in the effort to grapple with the idea of race and its implications for the nature-nurture question. This paper outlines the current anthropological and social perspective on race, and applies this view to problems of disease epidemiology. It is proposed that uncritical use of the traditional biological concept of race has distorted etiological thinking in public health and has proven an obstacle in the development of effective intervention strategies. The pragmatism of medicine and its isolation from social science may account for much of this backwardness.