ArticleHealth services research2014
"Which box should I check?": examining standard check box approaches to measuring race and ethnicity.
Article in Health services research, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Incorporating Social Determinants of Health in Infectious Disease Models: A Systematic Review of Guidelines.Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making · 2024Pooled it
- Race and Ethnicity of Infants Enrolled in Neonatal Clinical Trials: A Systematic Review.JAMA network open · 2023Pooled it
- Internalized Weight Bias Is Associated With Dysregulated Affect and Binge Eating in Daily Life Among Adults of High Body Weight With and Without HIV.Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics · 2026Article
- Disparities in Receipt of Early Intervention Services by Toddlers with Autism Diagnoses: an Intersectional Latent Class Analysis of Demographic Factors.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- Racial and Ethnic (In)equity in Development of Power Through Place-Based Initiatives.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Addressing bias in preterm birth research: The role of advanced imputation techniques for missing race and ethnicity in perinatal health data.Annals of epidemiology · 2024Article
- Citizenship status and career self-efficacy: An intersectional study of biomedical trainees in the United States.PloS one · 2024Article
- Experiences of maltreatment in childhood are associated with increasing anxiety and lower body acceptance over pregnancy.Journal of psychosomatic research · 2023Article
- Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Gamblers of East Asian Descent in Australia: A Comprehensive Review of Current Evidence.Journal of gambling studies · 2023Review
- Nowhere to go? A study of marginalization, social connection, and mental health outcomes among young adults experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic.Journal of transport & health · 2023Article
- Low frequency of allergy referral for penicillin allergy evaluation in an urban Boston primary care setting.The journal of allergy and clinical immunology. Global · 2023Article
- Review
- Race and Remdesivir: Examination of Clinical Outcomes in a Racially and Ethnically Diverse Cohort in New York City.Ethnicity & disease · 2023Article
- Comparing National Probability and Community-Based Samples of Sexual Minority Adults: Implications and Recommendations for Sampling and Measurement.Archives of sexual behavior · 2020Article
- Identifying visible minorities or racialized persons on surveys: can we just ask?Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2020Article
- Disparity in Risk Factor Severity for Early Childhood Blood Lead among Predominantly African-American Black Children: The 1999 to 2010 US NHANES.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Racial differences in experimental pain sensitivity and conditioned pain modulation: a study of Chinese and Indians.Journal of pain research · 2019Article
- Characterizing Beliefs about Stroke and Walking for Exercise among Seniors from Four Racial/Ethnic Minority Communities.Journal of cross-cultural gerontology · 2018Article
- Response bias to a randomised controlled trial of a lifestyle intervention in people at high risk of cardiovascular disease: a cross-sectional analysis.BMC public health · 2018Article
- Self-reported race and ethnicity of US biobank participants compared to the US Census.Journal of community genetics · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveThis study examined methodological concerns with standard approaches to measuring race and ethnicity using the federally defined race and ethnicity categories, as utilized in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded research. DATA SOURCES/STUDY
settingSurveys were administered to 219 economically disadvantaged, racially and ethnically diverse participants at Boston Women Infants and Children (WIC) clinics during 2010. STUDY
designWe examined missingness and misclassification in responses to the closed-ended NIH measure of race and ethnicity compared with open-ended measures of self-identified race and ethnicity. PRINCIPAL
findingsRates of missingness were 26 and 43 percent for NIH race and ethnicity items, respectively, compared with 11 and 18 percent for open-ended responses. NIH race responses matched racial self-identification in only 44 percent of cases. Missingness and misclassification were disproportionately higher for self-identified Latina(o)s, African-Americans, and Cape Verdeans. Race, but not ethnicity, was more often missing for immigrant versus mainland U.S.-born respondents. Results also indicated that ethnicity for Hispanic/Latina(o)s is more complex than captured in this measure.
conclusionsThe NIH's current race and ethnicity measure demonstrated poor differentiation of race and ethnicity, restricted response options, and lack of an inclusive ethnicity question. Separating race and ethnicity and providing respondents with adequate flexibility to identify themselves both racially and ethnically may improve valid operationalization.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.