As evidence continues to mount suggesting that perceived discrimination is a risk factor for multiple health outcomes, there is increasing scientific interest in this area of research. For some, this has led to the routine, mechanical and a-theoretical addition of a discrimination scale to health studies without adequate thought regarding either the assessment of discrimination or the underlying mechanisms and processes by which discrimination would be presumed to affect health. We believe that the time has come for careful re-assessment of our current approaches to the study of discrimination and health with an eye toward investing in what is needed to improve our scientific understanding of this phenomenon and its health consequences. Perceived discrimination is a psychosocial stressor and there is much that can be learned from the larger literature on stress to advance the study of discrimination and health (Williams et al. 2003). Enhancing our understanding of discrimination and health will require more systematic attention to comprehensively and accurately measuring discrimination, assessing how it combines with other aspects of racism and other stressors to affect health and paying greater attention to the underlying pathways by which discrimination can affect health.
