New Article on Improving the Quality of Hospital Discharge Race Data:

Co-Authored by the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board and the Seattle Indian Health Board’s Urban Indian Health Institute

An article entitled, “Using Record Linkage to Improve Race Data Quality for American Indians and Alaskan Natives in Two Pacific Northwest State Hospital Discharge Databases” was published in the July 2015 issue of Health Services Research. Using Record linkage, state hospital records were matched to the Northwest Tribal Registry, a registry of American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) individuals who accessed services at Indian health care organizations in the Pacific Northwest, including the Seattle Indian Health Board. Approximately 55% of matching records were misclassified in Oregon and 45% in Washington. Correcting this misclassification greatly increased ascertainment of AI/AN hospitalizations in both these states. It also increased the rate ratio for AI/AN hospitalizations when compared to non-Hispanic whites in both Oregon and Washington. This work demonstrates the importance of improving race data quality for AI/ANs to address disparities in health and health care delivery. Access the abstract online.

Interested in reading the full text article?
Through a special journal access program via the National Institutes of Health Library, the UIHI can help staff of Urban Indian Health Organizations (UIHOs) gain access to the full-text article. If you are a UIHO staff person, please contact the UIHI for more information. If you are not employed by a UIHO, you may be able to gain access to the full-text article through the library of a college or university in your area. Otherwise, you may purchase access to the article through the Health Services Research website. Copyright restrictions do no permit us to share the full text article directly.