NHPI Data Policy Lab awarded grant to develop NHPI Health Equity Index
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UCLA CHPR Communications Team
The AAPI Data program at the University of California, Riverside has awarded the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) Data Policy Lab at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research (UCLA CHPR) a grant to develop an NHPI Health Equity Index.
Led by UCLA CHPR Director Ninez A. Ponce, PhD, MPP, the project “Community Partnerships in Creating the NHPI Health Equity Index,” aims to address the gaps in data for NHPI communities through the construction of the NHPI Health Equity Index, which may better show the needs of the state’s Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander population. Ponce and members of the NHPI Data Policy Lab will collaborate with community partners to detect catastrophic and cumulative health risks for NHPI communities that would otherwise be missed by existing health indices.
“Data play a key role in various federal funding formulas and grantmaking by prioritizing resources as well as informing program development. Some decision-making metrics are also operationalized in a way that reduces the detection of social needs in Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) communities. The NHPI Data Policy Lab at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research will work with community partners to develop an NHPI Health Equity Index to understand the role of the social determinants of health — the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age — on health outcomes,” Ponce said. “We are grateful to AAPI Data and the California State Legislature for their support of this important work.”
The award is part of $1.1 million in grants given to research teams at five University of California campuses to probe the needs of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders in California and to provide a set of policy recommendations to address those needs. The grants are divided among eight teams of academic and community-based researchers to complete research projects ranging from the impact of bullying in schools to how the COVID-19 pandemic affects the health and well-being of Filipino American workers in the state.
“These grants build on AAPI Data’s initial work to expand the data and research capacity on Asian American and NHPI needs and our collaboration with the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the California Health Interview Survey,” said Karthick Ramakrishnan, founder and director of the AAPI Data program and a professor at UCR’s School of Public Policy. “We thank the California State Legislature and the California API Legislative Caucus for their leadership and support to advance data equity for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders in California.”
The grants are funded out of a $10 million allocation to AAPI Data provided by the California State Legislature in 2021. These funds were part of the $166.5 million Asian and Pacific Islander Equity Budget approved by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“The API Equity Budget recognized that California needs to expand its research capacity to study Asian American and Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander populations to inform effective policies to help our communities,” said Richard Pan, AAPI Data Senior Policy Advisor and Past-Chair of the AAPI Legislative Caucus. “These eight research projects at UC are the beginning steps of this investment to make AA/NHPI populations more visible to policymakers.”
For more information about the other projects selected for the grant, visit the AAPI Data website.
About the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research
The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research (CHPR) is one of the nation’s leading health policy research centers and the premier source of health policy information for California. UCLA CHPR improves the public’s health through high quality, objective, and evidence-based research and data that informs effective policymaking. UCLA CHPR is the home of the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) and is part of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.