Newswise — Removing race from equations that estimate lung function will shift the categorization of disease severity across patient populations, moving more Black individuals into an advanced disease category, according to new research led by scientists at Harvard Medical School. At the same time, more white and Hispanic people would be reclassified as having less advanced illness.The findings, the research team said, suggest that adjusting lung function tests to include race — as has been the case historically — likely normalized worse lung function and downplayed disease severity among Black people.
The work, scheduled to appear May 19 in the New England Journal of Medicine , will be presented simultaneously at a special session of the annual meeting of the American Thoracic Society. ( Paper DOI: 10.1056/NEJMsa2311809 ) “The race-based formula to estimate lung function assumes that different race groups have different normal lung function, and it’s known that this can obscure disease severity in many individuals,” said study senior author Raj Manrai , assistant professor of biomedical informatics in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS.
“Yet the myriad implications of race adjustment and the effects of removing race have not been comprehensively quantified — our study is an attempt do so.” The analysis shows that removing race from current lung function estimates would change who is diagnosed with respiratory illness and, in turn, who qualifies for disability c.