Using name lists to infer Asian racial/ethnic subgroups in the healthcare setting.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Many clinical data sources used to assess health disparities lack Asian subgroup information, but do include patient names.

Objective

This project validates Asian surname and given name lists for identifying Asian subgroups (Asian Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese) in clinical records.

Subjects

We used 205,000 electronic medical records from the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, a multipayer, outpatient healthcare organization in Northern California, containing patient self-identified race/ethnicity information.

Research design

Name lists were used to infer racial/ethnic subgroup for patients with self-identified race/ethnicity data. Using self-identification as the "gold standard," sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive valu

SUBMITTER: Wong EC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3249427 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature