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Activity Number: 597
Type: Topic Contributed
Date/Time: Wednesday, August 12, 2015 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
Sponsor: Social Statistics Section
Abstract #317501 View Presentation
Title: On Causal Interpretations of Race in Regressions Adjusting for Confounding and Mediating Variables
Author(s): Whitney Robinson*
Companies: The University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health
Keywords: disparities ; epidemiology ; regression ; mediation ; health equity ; race
Abstract:

We consider several possible interpretations of the "effect of race" when regressions are run with race as an exposure variable, controlling for various confounding or mediating variables. Specifically, we discuss under what circumstances the regression coefficients for race can be interpreted as corresponding to the extent to which a racial inequality would remain if distributions of covariates could be equalized across contrasing populations defined by race. We contrast outcomes in non-Hispanic Blacks and Whites controlling for socioeconomic variables early in life and in adulthood. We note how the overall racial inequality can be decomposed into the portion that would be eliminated by equalizing adult socioeconomic status across racial groups and the portion of the inequality that would remain even if adult socioeconomic status across racial groups were equalized. We also discuss challenges with a stronger interpretation of the effect of race (stronger in terms of assumptions) involving the joint effects of race-associated physical traits, culture, and genetics if such variables are thought to be hypothetically manipulable.


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