A New Data Paradigm: Data Collection on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders at the National Level

Background/Significance: The lack of national data on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AAs and NHPIs) has consistently been identified as a barrier to identifying and understanding the health needs of these populations. Barriers often mentioned as reasons for why data were not collected included small sample size and cost.

Objective: This presentation is to provide an update on recent (post 2006) developments in data policy and data collection that will result in national data on AAs and NHPIs. The three key developments that will be discussed are: oversampling in the National Health Interview Survey, oversampling in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, and the change in how race/ethnicity is identified on the Social Security Card application.

Methods: We assess recent developments in national data collection efforts. Issues addressed include review of sample design, statistical power, and ability to disaggregate data by ethnic subgroups. We also review what types of information can be gleaned from these national surveys.

Results: New sampling strategies and adherence to the OMB recommendations on the classification of data by race and ethnicity will provide critical new national data on AAs and NHPIs.

Discussion: There has been a paradigm shift in data collection at the national level. Future data through NHIS and NHANES will provide critical information on health status, access to care, and utilization of health services. Although these changes are significant improvements, numerous challenges remain including disaggregation of data by ethnic subgroup, generalizability, and statistical power over short time periods.