Naming Institutionalized Racism in the Public Health Literature A Systematic Literature Review

• Published in: Public Health Reports Vol. 133; no. 3; pp. 240 - 249
• Main Authors: Hardeman, Rachel R., Murphy, Katy A., Karbeah, J’Mag, Kozhimannil, Katy Backes
• Format: Journal Article Book Review
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOLS & PROGRAMS OF PUBLIC HEALTH 01.05.2018; SAGE Publications; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Classification; Continental Population Groups; Delivery of Health Care - ethnology; Discrimination; Health disparities; Health research; Health Status Disparities; Humans; Inequality; Institutionalization; Literature reviews; Public Health; Race; Racism; Reviews; Social privilege; Systematic Review; Systemic racism; United States - ethnology; Well being; United States; United States > US; racial disparities; structural racism; health policy; social inequities; institutionalized racism; public health
• ISSN: 0033-3549; 1468-2877
• DOI: 10.1177/0033354918760574

Objectives: Although a range of factors shapes health and well-being, institutionalized racism (societal allocation of privilege based on race) plays an important role in generating inequities by race. The goal of this analysis was to review the contemporary peer-reviewed public health literature from 2002-2015 to determine whether the concept of institutionalized racism was named (ie, explicitly mentioned) and whether it was a core concept in the article. Methods: We used a systematic literature review methodology to find articles from the top 50 highest-impact journals in each of 6 categories (249 journals in total) that most closely represented the public health field, were published during 2002-2015, were US focused, were indexed in PubMed/MEDLINE and/or Ovid/MEDLINE, and mentioned terms relating to institutionalized racism in their titles or abstracts. We analyzed the content of these articles for the use of related terms and concepts. Results: We found only 25 articles that named institutionalized racism in the title or abstract among all articles published in the public health literature during 2002-2015 in the 50 highest-impact journals and 6 categories representing the public health field in the United States. Institutionalized racism was a core concept in 16 of the 25 articles. Conclusions: Although institutionalized racism is recognized as a fundamental cause of health inequities, it was not often explicitly named in the titles or abstracts of articles published in the public health literature during 2002-2015. Our results highlight the need to explicitly name institutionalized racism in articles in the public health literature and to make it a central concept in inequities research. More public health research on institutionalized racism could help efforts to overcome its substantial, longstanding effects on health and well-being.