Improving Data & Enhancing Access - Northwest (IDEA-NW)
Background:
Numerous studies have shown high rates of racial misclassification in vital statistics and other public health datasets; in the Northwest, misclassification of AI/AN race may range from 30-60%. As a result, the true burden of disease and mortality among AI/ANs is often underestimated. Such inaccuracies can seriously impair public health decision-making and the appropriate allocation of disease control resources. Furthermore, most tribes lack local-level data on the rates and distribution of health events in their populations, limiting their ability to allocate resources to areas of greatest need.
The IDEA-NW Project was designed to address these shortcomings, providing a means to reduce misclassification of AI/AN race in surveillance systems, and to disseminate local-level health status data to tribes. The project works to correct inaccurate race data for AI/AN at the state level, through record linkages with surveillance data such as cancer registries, hospital discharge systems, trauma registries, vital statistics, and STD/HIV systems. We then analyze and disseminate AI/AN health status data in ways that are locally meaningful for tribal health planning.
Goals:
- Improve the validity and reliability of AI/AN race data in state data systems
- Increase the availability of accurate and complete health status data for Northwest tribal communities, to inform public health decision-making and efforts to eliminate health disparities
Objectives:
- Ascertain and correct AI/AN racial misclassification in disease registries
- Use linked case information to generate local-level health status information for tribes and health programs
- Repeat linkages at regular intervals to build health trend data over time
- Expand the representativeness of the Northwest Tribal Registry dataset (currently a list of patients registered with the IHS) by partnering with tribes and urban Indian programs
- Develop tools and resources to help disseminate this work to other states and Tribal EpiCenters
Scope:
The project works with the states of Idaho, Oregon, and Washington and serves all 43 federally-recognized Tribes in the Northwest.
Funding:
This project is supported by grant number R01HS019972 from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, current funding 9/30/2010 — 9/29/2013.
