Methodological issues and strategies for using and measuring race in regression analyses

There is a vast array of literature on racial and ethnic disparities in health and broad consensus in the public health field that race is a social construct. However, most biostatistical and epidemiological researchers are not cognizant of the ways their understandings of race and ethnicity seep into their research designs and statistical analyses. It is important to consider how the social constructions of race and ethnicity influences the ways in which biostatisticians and other researchers measure racial and ethnic phenomena, including racial and ethnic disparities. This talk includes a discussion of different coding strategies and the promise of nested models for critical studies of race and racism using regression analysis.