Scoping Review of Racial and Ethnic Representation of Participants in Mental Health Research Conducted in the Perinatal Period During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Deepika Goyal, Justine Dol, Madeline Leckey and 4 others
PMID 36462529WHAT IT FOUND
Perinatal mental health research during the pandemic relied heavily on White participants.
Fewer than a quarter were Black, Indigenous, or women of color. Clinicians should treat findings from these studies as potentially unrepresentative of their diverse patient caseloads.
Key findings
01Of the 16,841 participants across the 25 included studies, 76.5% identified as White, while only 9.8% identified as Black, 3.9% as Asian, and 2.6% as Hispanic or Latina.
02Most included studies used cross-sectional designs and recruited participants via social media platforms, which may have skewed the sample toward higher-income individuals.
03Researchers frequently used broad racial and ethnic categories or grouped diverse populations into 'other' or 'multiracial' categories, which fails to accurately describe participant experiences.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The review did not assess the quality or risk of bias of the included studies. The search was limited to English-language articles published in the United States or Canada. Many included studies relied on social media recruitment, which may have introduced sampling bias toward higher-income populations. Race and ethnicity data were often self-reported or taken from electronic medical records using broad, non-specific categories. The review excluded randomized controlled trials and studies focusing on paternal outcomes.
Declared interests
No specific conflicts of interest or funding sources were explicitly detailed in the provided text, though the publication type notes 'Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't'.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that the prevalence or presentation of perinatal mental health conditions found in these studies applies equally to all racial and ethnic groups. The sample was 76.5% White, meaning findings may not reflect the experiences of Black, Indigenous, or other women of color, who were significantly underrepresented.