Research conducted by an anthropology professor at the University of California Irvine calls into question the imperfect science behind labeling ethnic groups for classifying and studying chronic illness. Paying specific attention to the problematic nature of linking health inequalities and so-called predisposition to genetic variation rather than social factors such as poverty and access to adequate health care, the research raises questions about the established, inexact methods of establishing race and ethnicity.

After following the trail of DNA samples from when they were first donated by people living along the US-Mexican border, to the eventual publication of findings based on these samples in scientific journal, the researchers found that the resulting data utilized by U.S. and British scientists used social and historical explanations -- not biological differences -- to define race and ethnicity for their research. Arbitrary labeling systems such as these, and their attendant genetic studies, are behind data suggesting that certain ethnic groups are predisposed to chronic illnesses like diabetes. In fact, this very thing was suggested of Mexican Americans, sparking international debate.

The researchers fear that the current methods of labeling race for research purposes will produce dissimilar and inconclusive results from study to study. This could effect the way a disease such is diabetes is treated for any given race, as it may be viewed as a genetically predisposed problem, for example, when in reality the problem is rooted more in social inequity.