Imputing Missing Race/Ethnicity in Pediatric Electronic Health Records: Reducing Bias with Use of U.S. Census Location and Surname Data.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To assess the utility of imputing race/ethnicity using U.S. Census race/ethnicity, residential address, and surname information compared to standard missing data methods in a pediatric cohort.

Data sources/study setting

Electronic health record data from 30 pediatric practices with known race/ethnicity.

Study design

In a simulation experiment, we constructed dichotomous and continuous outcomes with pre-specified associations with known race/ethnicity. Bias was introduced by nonrandomly setting race/ethnicity to missing. We compared typical methods for handling missing race/ethnicity (multiple imputation alone with clinical factors, complete case analysis, indicator variables) to multiple imputation incorporating surname and address information.

Principal

SUBMITTER: Grundmeier RW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4545341 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature