NHPI Data Policy Lab introduces data tools aimed at prioritizing data equity among Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders
Data dashboards will provide access to data on the health and health care needs of the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities
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UCLA CHPR Communications Team
Decades of gaps in data have perpetuated and exacerbated health inequities among Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) communities, but a series of new data products released by the NHPI Data Policy Lab aims to close those gaps.
The NHPI Data Policy Lab, housed under the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, has launched four data dashboards and a data policy platform focused on providing accessible tools on the health and health needs of the NHPI community. For years, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders have been hidden by a lack of disaggregated data, with NHPIs often being absorbed into other racial and ethnic groups, such as Asian or other.
“The NHPI Data Policy Lab is proud to announce the release of a series of dashboards that will provide community organizations with tools that will shed light on their priorities,” said Calvin Chang, data analytics director and co-founding member of the NHPI Data Policy Lab. “These dashboards further the Lab’s mission to uplift NHPI communities by placing data in the hands of those best positioned to serve them.”
Two of the Lab’s dashboards focus on the social determinants of health — the non-medical factors that include health outcomes — and provide data on seven major topic areas: demographics, disability, economic indicators, education, health, housing and veteran status. The dashboards have data available by state in the U.S., as well as by California county.
In Arkansas, a state with a growing NHPI population, 42% of NHPIs do not have health insurance, more than four times the number of Asians (9%) and whites (10%). The dashboards also highlight disparities among detailed NHPI groups, with 47.8% of Marshallese not having health insurance compared to 5.9% of Samoans.
In California, 7.3% of NHPIs ages 18–59 live below the federal poverty level, compared to 1.4% of those ages 60–74 and 0.5% of those ages 75–84.
The two COVID-19 dashboards, which feature case and death rates both by California counties and top 10 counties outside of Hawaii and California, highlight the disproportionate impact of the virus on the NHPI community.
“Earlier today, staff from an NHPI organization reached out to get population data for counties their organization was serving for a grant application. She had tried to get that information in other ways and wasn’t successful,” said ‘Alisi Tulua, project director for the NHPI Data Policy Lab. “I shared the dashboard with her and asked, ‘Why can’t it be this easy to find data?’ Our organization’s capacity to make the case for serving our communities rests on their ability to have the data they need. The tools we have developed help to alleviate these barriers for our organizations. It is just the beginning but it is already a strong start.”
Among the most important aspects of the new data products is the focus on community. Designed with community input from 34 NHPI organizations, the data dashboards hope to address the community’s barriers to accessing and utilizing disaggregated health and social determinants of health data to inform advocacy efforts and programs.
“With the creation of these dashboards, [the NHPI Data Policy Lab] has removed a lot of the barriers we’ve had in the past,” said Ualani Ho’opai, executive director of the Pacific Islander Health Partnership. “Now we can tell bigger, better stories. We’re able to highlight diversity. Without the current, relevant data, we’re unable to inform policy and tell our full story. When it comes to the elected officials, sharing that information is key.”
In addition to four dashboards, the lab released a Data Policy Platform, which includes data policy recommendations, an overview of priority areas of need, and an introduction to specific population considerations.
Featuring input from more than 135 NHPI community leaders across the nation, the Data Policy Platform addresses the harmful effects of data systems that inadvertently reflect the challenges and strengths of NHPI communities, while also proposing a framework for improving data systems for NHPIs.
The platform recommends a data equity framework centered on addressing data inequity issues through the inclusion of NHPI communities throughout the development and implementation of data processing, while also including partnerships to build the NHPI community’s understanding of the data. “Community engagement is key to promoting NHPI health and these new data tools wouldn’t be possible without the support of the NHPI community,” said Ninez A. Ponce, PhD, principal investigator or the NHPI Data Policy Lab and director of UCLA CHPR. “Through the Data Policy Platform and dashboards, we will work to improve and expand capacity for community organizations, government officials and agencies, local health departments and foundations to address barriers to accessing disaggregated health and social determinants of health data once and for all.”
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.