Conceptual and methodological issues in the use of race as a variable: Policy implications

The concept of race permeates social and behavioral science as well as epidemiologic research, but its meaning is rarely specific or precise. When it is being used as a genetic construct, when as an indicator or a covariant with socioeconomic status, and when as an undifferentiated statistical construct? Scientific axioms, federal and state policies, the nature of health behavior interventions, and the distribution of health services are contingent on the empirical explication of race. If they are based on one meaning over another, the ouctomes could be critical.