understanding of racial health disparities in the United States, suggesting that certain genes predispose individuals to specific diseases. However, the U.S. Census Bureau's recognition of race as a social and not biological category necessitates a social understanding of the causes of health disparities. Additionally, the restricted options for "race" and "ethnicity" in Census Bureau data complicates the results of their findings. This issue is illustrated with the example of those who identify themselves as Hispanic/Latino, typically a mix of White, American Indian and African ancestry. Although some studies include this as a "race", many such as the U.S. Census do not, forcing members of this group to choose between identifying themselves as one of the listed racial categories, even if they do not personally identify with it. Additionally, individuals who identify as biracial or multiracial must choose one category to identify with, limiting the ability of many Americans to select a census category that they actually identify with. The inability of many individuals to fully identify with one census category indicates the necessity of cultural, historical, and socio-economic explanations of health disparities rather than a biological one. Census groupings have also been criticized for their broadness. "Race" and "ethnicity" are used in many different ways in the United States, and the lack of subgroups in Census categories fails to account for the diversity of people identifying with each group. Every group on the Census includes people who identify with a number of unrepresented racial and ethnic sub-categories, but the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity group and Asian racial group have been particularly criticized for this lack of specificity. See also National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities Black Maternal Mortality in the United States Medical Deserts in the United States Environmental racism Environmental Racism in the United States Weathering hypothesis Food desert Ghetto tax Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome Racial biases in medical decision-making tools Race and crime in the United States References Social problems in medicine