A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that minority groups are consistently underrepresented in clinical trial research and in medical literature.
Researchers from The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and other institutions looked at clinical trial reports published between 2015 and 2019 in three medical journals. The researchers noted reports that include race, socioeconomic status and sex information.
Of the 688 studies pulled, about half mentioned race, less than 15 percent mentioned socioeconomic status and 98 percent mentioned sex.
Of the studies that mentioned race, about 80 percent of the participants on average were white, and 56 percent were male.
The study concluded that factors including race and socioeconomic status are underreported in clinical research, and of the numbers that are reported, the percentages of racial minority groups involved are extremely low.
Racial representation of minority groups in medical studies is extremely limited, despite the number of Black Americans in the U.S. growing by 29 percent since 2000, according to a PEW survey.
Read more about the study here.