title: Statistics blur minority distinctiveness.
abstract: In their study of the success of drug treatment, Sirotnik and Roffe blurred and probably minimized racial and ethnic distinctions. Their problem was trying to compare Whites, Blacks, and Chicanos with a statistic requiring two-art or scalar variables. Of non-Blacks (compared to Blacks), 29% were Chicanos, and of non-Browns (compared to Chicanos), 32% were Blacks. Nonetheless, of nine variables significantly associated with "staying in treatment," five were blackness, brownness, or synonymous with them. A format with only percentages would enable analysis to see substantive results clearly and in more detail.
mesh_terms: D005006:Ethnicity; D006801:Humans; D009293:Opioid-Related Disorders / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D010349:Patient Compliance; D013223:Statistics as Topic