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Revista argentina de cirugía
Print version ISSN 2250-639XOn-line version ISSN 2250-639X
Rev. argent. cir. vol.115 no.1 Cap. Fed. May 2023
http://dx.doi.org/10.25132/raac.v115.n1.edmm
Articles
Importance of disparities in scientific research
In recent years, the influence of certain population-based variables related to medical care on the incidence, development and response to treatments, and which were not usually considered in scientific studies, is gaining increasing attention. Differences in ethnicity, race, socioeconomic factors and education in large databases have been studied and demonstrated to be associated with different outcomes in several diseases1-6.
In addition to the inequity that this represents for society, this situation also influences the implementation of research results in medicine. Statistical inference is the process through which inferences about a population are calculated with some uncertainty from a sample of data drawn from that population. In many clinical trials that are used to guide medical practice, sample composition is not representative of the population in which the results will be applied7-12.
If this happens in countries considered as a reference in the production of medical information, to what extent will the extrapolation of these results affect countries with different demographic and sociocultural conditions? In Argentina there are no records of racial differences among the population, but there are geographical, social, educational, and economic barriers to medical care among different groups, which undeniably affect the health of the different human groups. Furthermore, we should bear in mind that controlled clinical trials are conducted following high standards of care and follow-up, conditions that cannot be fully reproduced in the “real world”. The question is: can the results of international studies be reliably implemented in our population?
This question can only be answered by producing medical knowledge in our country. Such studies may not have the adequate sample size and rigorous methods as those of other countries with significant economic support for research, but they would be the only valid attempt to learn about the reality of local healthcare. Therefore, researchers who strive to carry out and publish scientific studies in Argentina need to be stimulated so that, either by confirming or not confirming the results of international studies, they can build up a body of scientific knowledge that can be extrapolated to our population with higher certainty.
Referencias bibliográficas /References
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10. Johnson-Mann CN, Cupka JS, Ro A, et al. A Systematic review on participant diversity in clinical trials-have we made progress for management of obesity and its metabolic secuelae in diet, drug, and surgical trials. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2022. doi: 10.1007/s40615-022-01487-0. On line ahead of print. [ Links ]
11. Spielman DB, Liebowitz A, Kelebeyev S, et al. Race in rhinology clinical trials: a decade of disparities. Laryngoscope. 2021;131(8):1722-8. [ Links ]
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