U.S. Census Procedures: A Backdrop for Consideration of Ethnic and Racial Issues in Health Education Programming

Abstract

It is an important competency of health educators that they be able to: “Obtain health-related data about social and cultural environments.” Accordingly, health educators routinely use race or ethnicity as a population descriptor for target audiences and as a means for determining relative risk for disease, disability, or injury. Research recommendations or program development based on race and/or ethnicity usually show no consideration of the ambiguous nature of the terms. However, it is the ambiguous use of these and related terms by the U.S. Bureau of the Census that is cited in this article to demonstrate the need for health educators to frame health education issues in a historical and contextual manner in order to develop plans and reach educational goals with persons from various racial and ethnic groups. Hypothesized case examples are presented to illustrate the need for focused perspectives that include historical and contextual application of race and ethnicity in health education programming.