47 - Hispanic/Latinx Inclusive Terminologies Project: Recommendations to Improve and Expand Medical Subject Headings

Background: This poster is part of the Hispanic/Latinx Inclusive Terminologies Project. Spurred on by racial injustices in June 2020 and calls for changes within the profession, Latinx Caucus members were asked to “use our voices to be a part of the conversation for change”. This led to the Caucus’s focus on addressing bias within medical terminologies.

The MeSH Project Team’s objective was to recommend inclusive language within medical subject headings that better represent Hispanic/Latinx populations in order to change outdated terms, acknowledge self-identification, better capture research data from historically excluded groups, and recognize the fluidity of evolving identities.

Description: From January 2021-June 2021, the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) Project Team conducted a scoping assessment of Hispanic/Latinx terminologies from various sources. The scoping assessment included a review of federal sources, medical databases, style guides, social media, and the academic literature in order to review the historical use of “Hispanic” and “Latino”, and usage trends of inclusive terms like “Latinx”, “Latine”, and “Latinu”. To determine where recommendations could be made the project members then reviewed the MeSH terms “Hispanic Americans” and “Mexican Americans”.

In reviewing the scoping assessment and existing MeSH structure, the project team recommended 2 new MeSH terms: “Latin Americans”, “Brazilian Americans” and additional entry terms for existing headings. Team recommendations were submitted to NLM via the help desk feature between June and October 2021. The team also reached out to NLM's MeSH division for guidance.

Conclusion: By systematically evaluating a variety of resources using a scoping assessment as the primary tool and reviewing gaps within existing medical subject headings, the project team members were able to bring forward four recommendations for enhancing Hispanic/Latinx terminologies. Recommendations are being reviewed by MeSH indexers at the National Library of Medicine, however, one noted change since the team’s submissions is the replacement of “Hispanic Americans” for “Hispanic or Latino” in the 2022 MeSH Update.