Minority race and ethnicity are underreported in colorectal surgery research: A 14-year systematic review.

Overview

BACKGROUND: Disparities by race and ethnicity have been reported for incidence, access, and outcomes of colorectal disease. We aimed to describe rates of race and ethnicity reporting in clinical colorectal studies published in high-impact journals. METHODS: All prospective and retrospective clinical studies published in two high-impact colorectal journals and two high-impact surgical journals from 2010 to 2023 were identified using PubMed. Subset analyses of studies published in America were performed. RESULTS: Of 1220 studies, 1110 met inclusion criteria, and 203 were American. In American studies, rates of reporting White (p = 0.076), Black (p = 0.863), Asian (p = 0.509), or Hispanic patients (p = 0.133) remained unchanged over time. Overall, Black (n = 73, 81.1 %), Asian (n = 33, 36.7 %), and Hispanic patients (n = 33, 36.7 %) were reported less often than White patients (n = 87, 96.7 %) and were more likely to be represented as Other (n = 72, 80.0 %). CONCLUSIONS: Over 14 years, rates of reporting minority race and ethnicity groups in clinical colorectal surgery research remained low.