Assessing the performance of the Asian/Pacific islander identification algorithm to infer Hmong ethnicity from electronic health records in California

Abstract

Objective This study assesses the performance of the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries Asian/Pacific Islander Identification Algorithm (NAPIIA) to infer Hmong ethnicity. Design and setting Analyses of electronic health records (EHRs) from 1 January 2011 to 1 October 2015. The NAPIIA was applied to the EHR data, and self-reported Hmong ethnicity from a questionnaire was used as the gold standard. Sensitivity, specificity, positive (PPV) and negative predictive values (NPVs) were calculated comparing the source data ethnicity inferred by the algorithm with the self-reported ethnicity from the questionnaire. Participants EHRs indicating Hmong, Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean ethnicity who met the original study inclusion criteria were analysed. Results The NAPIIA had a sensitivity of 78%, a specificity of 99.9%, a PPV of 96% and an NPV of 99%. The prevalence of Hmong population in the sample was 3.9%. Conclusion The high sensitivity of the NAPIIA indicates its effectiveness in detecting Hmong ethnicity. The applicability of the NAPIIA to a multitude of Asian subgroups can advance Asian health disparity research by enabling researchers to disaggregate Asian data and unmask health challenges of different Asian subgroups.