The research on discrimination and health is continuing to grow rapidly. Although the discrimination variable has been operationalized in a variety of ways, the consistency of an inverse association between discrimination for an increasingly broad range of health outcomes, across multiple population groups in a wide range of cultural and national contexts is impressive, and lends credibility to the plausibility of perceived discrimination as an important emerging risk factor for disease. This paper has described many of the limitations of this work and outlined an ambitious research agenda so that the next generation of studies could provide more definitive evidence on the conditions under which exposure to discrimination can lead to changes in health status. It would also enhance our scientific understanding of the underlying mechanisms and processes that may be at work. Our review finds that failure to comprehensively and accurately characterize perceived discrimination and appropriately assess its association with health will lead to erroneous conclusions about the underlying relationship.
