Disaggregated Data Collection: Looking Into the Bigger Picture

It has been a long time coming, but Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) took a significant step towards resolving significant health disparities with the release of its final standards for the Affordable Care Act's disaggregated data collection. This important policy change will help policy makers, administrators, and community members consistently measure race, ethnicity, sex, primary language, and disability status. For the Southeast Asian American community, it is imperative to pay attention to specific and disaggregated data like this, because sometimes the bigger picture is not always the clearer picture.

An example of this is using the umbrella term of "Asian." By looking at individual ethnic groups one will find that a large number of Southeast Asian American refugees have suffered from mental health issues and acute or infectious health conditions. Refugee experiences have put Southeast Asian American elders at high risk of psychological distress. Information like this has long been glossed over by simply looking at data under broad umbrella terms, while the struggles of certain groups have are concealed. The new HHS-sponsored health surveys will require explicit categories that will set Southeast Asian Americans apart. This specificity will hopefully capture individual ethnic group challenges and help measure and track health differences in these populations. 

The Asian category in the Office of Minority Health (OMH) standard will now include Asian Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Other Asian. While the “Other Asian” category is not ideal for our communities, it will allow disaggregated data collection similar to the process that is used by the US Census. For the first time ever, we will have disaggregated Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) statistics and can gather data about our Southeast Asian American communities.

With the AAPI population being so diverse, many ethnic groups face unique health challenges. When those challenges are ignored or skewed by generalized data collection, people are paying the price with poor health. “We need to know the people who are suffering in our communities,” said Doua Thor, executive director at SEARAC. “Being able to document these health disparities will bring clarity to the Affordable Care Act and be the first step towards helping those who need it the most.”

The data collected with these new standards will help carry forward the HHS Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities.

(Photo: www.aarpglobalnetwork.org)