Why Are We Going Backward? Barriers to Disaggregated Racial Information in Federal Data Sets

Approximately 7% of the United States population is composed of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) communities. Though often aggregated in research studies, AANHPI populations in the United States are diverse, originating from 50 countries and speaking more than 100 languages. Aggregation may mask significant disparities between AANHPI subgroups, including the prevalence of chronic conditions and access to care.1 Disaggregation of health data for AANHPI populations has been a priority of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for more than 20years, and collection of disaggregated AANHPI data in US federal health data sets has increased over that time.1 However, a large gap remains between the collection of these data and their practical and meaningful use for public health research, mainly because ofthe burdens placed on researchers to access these data.