The use of race and ethnicity in sickle cell disease research.

This study explores practices surrounding the operationalization of ethno-racial categories (ERCs) as confounders in biomedical research, with a focus on sickle cell disease (SCD) as a model. ERCs, often aggregate labels encompassing diverse individuals which raises questions about their relevance as confounders. Given SCD's racialization as a "Black" disease, understanding ERC utilization is crucial.