A new method for estimating race/ethnicity and associated disparities where administrative records lack self-reported race/ethnicity

Health Serv Res. 2008 Oct;43(5 Pt 1):1722-36. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-6773.2008.00854.x. Epub 2008 May 12.

Abstract

Objective: To efficiently estimate race/ethnicity using administrative records to facilitate health care organizations' efforts to address disparities when self-reported race/ethnicity data are unavailable.

Data source: Surname, geocoded residential address, and self-reported race/ethnicity from 1,973,362 enrollees of a national health plan.

Study design: We compare the accuracy of a Bayesian approach to combining surname and geocoded information to estimate race/ethnicity to two other indirect methods: a non-Bayesian method that combines surname and geocoded information and geocoded information alone. We assess accuracy with respect to estimating (1) individual race/ethnicity and (2) overall racial/ethnic prevalence in a population.

Principal findings: The Bayesian approach was 74 percent more efficient than geocoding alone in estimating individual race/ethnicity and 56 percent more efficient in estimating the prevalence of racial/ethnic groups, outperforming the non-Bayesian hybrid on both measures. The non-Bayesian hybrid was more efficient than geocoding alone in estimating individual race/ethnicity but less efficient with respect to prevalence (p<.05 for all differences).

Conclusions: The Bayesian Surname and Geocoding (BSG) method presented here efficiently integrates administrative data, substantially improving upon what is possible with a single source or from other hybrid methods; it offers a powerful tool that can help health care organizations address disparities until self-reported race/ethnicity data are available.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Bayes Theorem
  • Data Collection / methods*
  • Ethnicity*
  • Health Services Research / methods
  • Healthcare Disparities / ethnology*
  • Humans
  • Racial Groups*
  • Self Report