[Distinguishing people by ethnic background in healthcare]

Abstract

Discrimination based on ethnic background and the use of terminology like 'Negro Race' in clinical practice guidelines have been criticized, also in this journal. Typical Dutch words 'allochtonen', 'non-western', 'Creools' and 'Hindostan' are unspecific or could also offend people. Nevertheless, there are health risks related to ethnic background. Healthcare improves when health professionals would consider these, contributing to person centred cultural sensitive care. Therefore, we aimed to start a discussion about which acceptable terminologies should be used to describe ethnic differences in guidelines and research. We suggest that terminologies use to describe ethnic minority groups should be as precise as possible and should not be offensive, for instance 'migration background' instead of allochtoon, and 'African-Surinamese' instead of Creool. We invite guideline developers, researchers and people of different ethnic background, to join this discussion.