ASPO Abstracts
Assessing Pacific Islander and Asian American Data Needs for Cancer Health Equity
Category: Cancer Health Disparities
Conference Year: 2023
Abstract Body:
COVID-19 exacerbated the structural racism inherent in data collection and reporting in public health. Building upon the long history of collaboration, centered on reducing cancer health disparities in Pacific Islanders and Asian Americans (PIAA), and as a response to the pandemic, cancer advocates and cancer researchers formed the Southern California Pacific Islander and Asian American Data Equity & Health Policy Collaborative (DEHP). DEHP, led by the University of California, Irvine, Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, organized a two-prong assessment 1) content analysis of federal and state policy compliance and 2) community assessment on usage and need for race and ethnicity data. The content policy analysis included surveying 35 California (CA) county health departments to capture federal and state data policy compliance, and the community assessment included a snowball sample of 77 PIAA organizations to understand perspectives for racial and ethnic data usage. 6 out of 35 CA county health departments reported compliance with federal and state policies for collecting and reporting of race & ethnicity data. 15 counties relied on secondary data collection sources for analysis and reporting (hospitalizations, U.S. census, state dashboards). The top reasons that PIAA organizations need race and ethnicity data were to apply for funding (79%), health education (73%), and evaluation (67%). Examining barriers to accessing data included Asian & Pacific Islanders were aggregated or put in the "Other
Keywords: racial and ethnicity data data equity community assessment cancer health disparities policy and advocacy