Making data accessible to communities is essential for developing community-driven solutions to address health inequities. A team of public health experts from across Southern Calif. analyzed the process by which the public could access federal data and found that there were gaps and security concerns by those who control and manage that data.
Brittany Morey, PhD, assistant professor of health, society, and behavior at the UCI Program in Public Health, was the first author of an essay that highlights the importance of making data about Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (NHPIs) accessible and transparent to their community as it contributes to various aspects of social, economic, and political development. Historically having little access to their data, efforts to improve accessibility will be a step closer to achieving greater health equity for NHPIs.
Joined by colleagues from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, Asian American Futures, and Jacqueline Tran Consulting, the commentary, titled Democratizing Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Data: Examining Community Accessibility of Data for Health and the Social Drivers of Health, was published in the American Journal of Public Health.
Our findings revealed federal gaps in data accessibility, as well as NHPI community organizational needs for increased data accessibility, data saliency, and technical capacity.”
– Brittany Morey, PhD
The authors provide a framework for evaluating community accessibility of data, including overall availability, prominence, cost, and report back. The team then applied the framework to evaluate community accessibility of NHPI data from 29 federal data sources. They included results from a survey of NHPI-serving community organizations in Calif. conducted from December 2021 to February 2022 to assess community data needs.
“Our findings revealed federal gaps in data accessibility, as well as NHPI community organizational needs for increased data accessibility, data saliency, and technical capacity,” Morey said. “We also found that there were community concerns from NHPI leaders about data privacy, security, and misuse.”
In the commentary, which was part of a supplemental issue of the journal, titled: Leveraging the Power of Communities, the team recommends that data custodians improve accessibility of timely, accurate, and robust data to support NHPI communities.
Additional contributors to the commentary include corresponding author Ninez A. Ponce, Corina S. Penaia, and Richard C. Chang, who are all from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research; Roselyn Tanghal with the UCI Program in Public Health; Jacqueline H. Tran with Jacqueline Tran Consulting; and Alisi Tulua with Asian American Futures.
