Why experts recommend ditching racial labels in genetic studies

U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine panel says race and ethnicity should no longer be used in genetics studies.

The term Caucasian carries the false notion of white superiority, the panel says.

Researchers could use other identifiers, including geographical ancestry, to define groups of people in the study.

Genetics research has suffered from a lack of diversity of participants.

U.S. government regulations require researchers to collect data on the race and ethnicity of study participants.

But those racial categories are too broad and don’t consider the social and environmental conditions that may affect health.