Abstract
Background: Cancer control researchers studying Asian Americans face many challenges in utilizing/analyzing health survey data due to limited sample sizes and population heterogeneity resulting in underrepresented in many health surveys. National-level initiatives have begun to address this problem, including a recent White House initiative to increase representation of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in research, data-collection, and analysis on AAPI populations and subpopulations. Within public health and specifically behavioral epidemiology, identifying and triangulating sources of data on Asian Americans can illuminate facilitate better understanding of health outcomes as well as behavioral mediators and moderators impacting this population.
Purpose of Study: This project examines federal and state health surveys relevant to cancer control to: 1) identify sources and types of Asian American data, 2) identify the gaps in behavioral research in Asian Americans and 3) facilitate research in Asian American cancer health disparities. Special attention is paid to measurement of cancer control and prevention, including relevant health behaviors and social determinants.
Method: Publically available health surveys including Asian-Americans will be presented and discussed, including but not limited to: the National Health Interview Survey, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, Health Information National Trends Survey, the Tobacco Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey, and the California Health Interview Survey. The analysis identifies how Asian Americans are reported and classified and highlights behavioral constructs relevant to cancer incidence and mortality. Differences between surveys will be presented along with an applied example of how data from different surveys may be merged together to create larger sample sizes to increase analytic power.
Discussion: The results of this project will demonstrate the utility of using multiple data sets to better understand cancer-related outcomes in Asian American populations. The applied example of a combined analysis will address analytic challenges and opportunities in studying populations with small sample sizes and with heterogeneous sub-groups using available nationally representative data. Finally, we will discuss ways in which the available data can illuminate gaps in behavioral research in cancer control among Asian Americans.
Citation Information: Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2010;19(10 Suppl):A76.
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