Collecting and analyzing racial and ethnic data is important for the purposes of research, public health surveillance, and program administration and civil rights enforcement. This presentation will highlight some of the opportunities and challenges faced by state health agencies in collecting, analyzing and presenting data on racial and ethnic minority groups. This three-part discussion will cover the following:
1. Best methods for ensuring the collection of race and ethnicity data for all racial and ethnic minority groups. 2. Creating uniform standards and guidelines pertaining to the collection of race and ethnicity data. 3. Issuing user-friendly data reports for all racial and ethnic minority groups.
A substantial amount of time will be devoted to a presentation of the development of a state policy guide for the collection, maintaining and presentation of data on race and ethnicity. The policy guide sets forth standards that will be useful at the state and local level, and also be sufficient for use in federal reporting. The guidelines range from instructions for minimum reporting to very detailed reporting of race and ethnic categories. The specific steps used in developing this policy guide including a review of policies of other data collectors and a determination of variables to be included in the policy will be outlined.
Learning Objectives: Attendees will acquire skills and knowledge concerning standard methods of collecting race and ethnicity data. Participants will be able to articulate the issues involved in using and analyzing multiple-race data. At the conclusion of the session, participants will be able to list the five federally-defined categories of race and two categories of ethnicity
Keywords: Minority Health, Statistics
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Rhode Island Department of Health
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: Employed at the Rhode Island Department of Health