These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: A new method for estimating race/ethnicity and associated disparities where administrative records lack self-reported race/ethnicity.
    Author: Elliott MN, Fremont A, Morrison PA, Pantoja P, Lurie N.
    Journal: Health Serv Res; 2008 Oct; 43(5 Pt 1):1722-36. PubMed ID: 18479410.
    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.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]