Improving disparity estimates for rare racial/ethnic groups with trend estimation and Kalman filtering: an application to the National Health Interview Survey.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Single-year estimates of health disparities in small racial/ethnic groups are often insufficiently precise to guide policy, whereas estimates that are pooled over multiple years may not accurately describe current conditions. While collecting additional data is costly, innovative analytic approaches may improve the accuracy and utility of existing data. We developed an application of the Kalman filter in order to make more efficient use of extant data.

Data source

We used 1997-2004 National Health Interview Survey data on the prevalence of health outcomes for two racial/ethnic subgroups: American Indians/Alaska Natives and Chinese Americans.

Study design

We modified the Kalman filter to generate more accurate current-year prevalence estimates for small racia

SUBMITTER: Elliott MN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2754551 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature