API Data Disaggregation

In 1997, the Office of Management and Budget implemented a new racial and ethnic category that disaggregated Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) into two groups: Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islanders (NHOPIs) and Asian Americans (AAs), and mandated that federal agencies collect and report data using the new racial and ethnic categories by the year 2003. The disaggregation of NHOPIs from AAPIs represents a major step toward accurately characterizing these distinct populations across various key measures and outcomes. This presentation will examine the efficacy of this policy in achieving health equity for NHOPIs and discuss the success and failures emerging from this progress since its implementation. The presentation will also highlight key findings from the Pacific Islander American Health Study, an evidence-based survey modeled after the National Health Interview Survey to provide better measures of health outcomes and healthcare utilization among numerically small understudied populations such as Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders. The presentation will illustrate how the study is able to address key priorities presented by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Disparities Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities (“HHS Disparities Action Plan”) and the National Partnership for Action Stakeholder Strategy (“NPA Stakeholder Strategy”).