Race and ethnicity as variables in Nursing Research, 1952-2000.
BACKGROUND
Although the use of race and ethnicity as variables in research has increased over the past five decades, there is confusion regarding the meaning of the terms, as well as how the words are defined and determined in scientific inquiry.


OBJECTIVE
To review the use of race and ethnicity as variables in nursing research literature.


METHODS
Original research articles published in Nursing Research in the years, 1952, 1955, and every 5 years thereafter through 2000 were reviewed. Those articles describing human characteristics (N = 337) were analyzed for content concerning: (a) frequency of racial and ethnic terms, (b) words used for racial and ethnic categories, (c) detinitions of racial and ethnic terms, and (d) how a study participant's race or ethnicity was determined.


RESULTS
Racial and ethnic variables were mentioned in 167 of the 337 reviewed articles. Eighty-one terms and word phrases were used for these variables. In only five articles were the variables defined. Race and ethnic labels were often intermixed and the majority of studies provided no information about how categorization of the participant's race or ethnicity was made. In addition, there was relatively little growth in the number of studies that had racial/ethnic groups, other than Whites, as the majority of the sample.


CONCLUSIONS
Racial and ethnic variables provide nurse researchers with many challenges. Although race and ethnicity were widely used in Nursing Research articles, the categories were not defined in the majority of papers, and methods used to determine a participant's race or ethnicity were unclear. In order to construct a common and consistent understanding of racial and ethnic categories, nurse researchers should be explicit regarding the rationale related to their use of the categories and the assumptions underlying particular racial and ethnic categorizations.
Drevdahl
D
D
Nursing Program, University of Washington, Tacoma 98402, USA. drevdahl@u.washington.edu
Taylor
J Y
JY
Phillips
D A
DA
D015706:Bibliometrics; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000266:history*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D015399:Nursing Research / Q000266:history*; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000266:history; D011643:Publishing / Q000266:history; D044469:Racial Groups / Q000266:history*; D012107:Research Design; D012660:Semantics; D014481:United States