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Race and ethnicity as determinants of child health: a personal view
Author(s) -
Spencer N
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
child: care, health and development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.832
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1365-2214
pISSN - 0305-1862
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2214.1996.tb00435.x
Subject(s) - race (biology) , ethnic group , confusion , race and health , psychology , social psychology , health equity , developmental psychology , sociology , health care , gender studies , political science , anthropology , psychoanalysis , law
Summary ‘Race’ and ethnicity are widely studied as explanatory variables in health research and their apparent independent effects are reported to explain many health variations between different groups within and between populations. Both, however, are associated with major problems of definition and confusion of socio‐cultural and biological concepts which call into question the validity of many of the ‘independent’ effects attributed to them. This paper seeks to unravel the basis of these concepts and explore their scientific validity using examples from the child health literature.