Greetings community! - I have a concrete (but not simple) question on which I would appreciate some feedback.
For reporting to an NIH funding agency we provide demographics on the currently enrolled participants. Currently, we use the term "diverse" to describe participants who are in a racial/ethnic minority group or who are low SES. Personally, I don't like this term because it suggests a deviation from the "norm" ("norm" clearly being defined as white and/or middle/upper SES). But I can't think of another shorthand term.
What do you folks think about the term "diverse" in this context? Am I being too picky?
If you don't like the term in this context, do you have another suggestion? Please note, this term is being used in progress report text and tables, so space is a premium. In addition, we have smallish numbers, so can't list a long series of racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups. We need to use the grouping we have, I'm just looking for a better term.
This is my first post to SRCD Commons and I want to apologize in advance if this type of question is not appropriate in this forum, or if I have posted to the wrong community. Please let me know if I should handle this question in a different way.
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Joanna Bulkley
Senior Research Associate
Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research
Portland OR
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