64
votes
Accepted
Why do doctors ask for your race?
Race and ethnicity are risk factors in many diseases. Examples include, but are not limited to, cystic fibrosis and spinal muscular atrophy.
There is also an epidemiological purpose of collecting this ...
- 835
20
votes
Why do doctors ask for your race?
There's a myriad of adjustments that can improve patients' treatment if it's race-informed. As a very small but characteristic example, the 2021 European Society of Cardiology Guidelines for Heart ...
12
votes
Why do doctors ask for your race?
Here are some random examples:
Ashkenazi Jewish Genetic Diseases
Bloom syndrome.
Canavan disease.
Cystic fibrosis. Th
Familial dysautonomia (FD).
Fanconi anemia.
Gaucher disease.
Mucolipidosis IV.
...
- 221
4
votes
Why do doctors ask for your race?
On a scale from sledgehammer to scalpel, race, as recorded in medical data is closer to sledgehammer in terms of granularity, but hey, sometimes we need sledgehammers (e.g. for broad epidemiological ...
- 49
3
votes
Why do doctors ask for your race?
In addition to all the fine answers, there are even more clinical reasons for including race in your chart. For one, clinical lab norms and calculations based on the clinical lab values can differ by ...
- 131
3
votes
Why do doctors ask for your race?
When you immigrate to the United States (as I did), one of the first things you notice is that you get asked about your race all the time. Want a loan from your bank, your race is recorded (if you ...
- 131
3
votes
Why do doctors ask for your race?
The answer to your question can come from many angles. I do not have clinical experience, but I do have regulatory reporting experience.
In the United States, the CDC runs a program called "...
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