by khasan222 on 4/1/24, 7:19 PM with 43 comments
by Chris2048 on 4/1/24, 7:56 PM
> Race isn’t a biological factor like age, sex or weight — it’s a social construct.
> In 1999, an equation used to calculate eGFR was modified to adjust Black people’s results compared to everyone else’s, based on some studies with small numbers of Black patients and a long-ago false theory about differences in creatinine levels.
> Black Americans are over three times more likely than white people to experience kidney failure.
so, is some racial metric reasonable or not? why are black Americans more likely to experience kidney failure - social issue, or biological?
was the study with a small number of participants repeated with a larger number?!
by branon on 4/1/24, 7:50 PM
Interesting conjecture there AP, but I don't buy it. Surely race is a biological factor. Maybe not for kidney health specifically but wouldn't race be inextricably tied to a person's biology, heritage, medical history?
Race is determined at birth by parents' biology, therefore is biological. Not _everything_ that makes people different from one another is a purely social construct.
Don't black people get sickle cell at higher rates than other races? Race is important in a lot of medical contexts.
Great that they fixed the kidney thing but don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, or the next headline will be "excess deaths due to incorrect treatment of <condition> for <race>".
By all means if the race-based heuristics are unsound, throw them out, but the article makes mention of a bunch more that are under scrutiny. Are they really all inaccurate or are we discounting biology in favor of social justice?
by blueflow on 4/1/24, 8:19 PM
How would cystic fibrosis pick its targets based on a social construct? Look up its very imbalanced prevalence.
So, if the prevalence of cystic fibrosis is indeed race-based, then we can't just assume that kidney function isn't.