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“Coding Race in Multi-source, Longitudinal Population Data”

Semester: Summer 2024


Presentation description

Background: The Utah Population Database (UPDB) is a digital resource that contains medical and/or demographic records on individuals in the state of Utah. Race records found in UPDB's data sources are used by research investigators when forming study cohorts and to analyze health risks in specific demographics.

Materials and Methods: To form the cohort for this study, 3,533,120 people were selected from the UPDB based on the criteria of having a birth date that was not null, a death date that was null, and residential records in Utah from 2019-present. The duration of this study was from May 30, 2024 to July 19, 2024. It took place at the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake, UT. Data was gathered on race records by data source, individual race record distributions, and distinct race counts. Statistics, tables, and charts were used to display and interpret the results.

Results/Discussion: 2,716,405 people in the study had only 1 distinct race listed in the UPDB. Most ArchiveRace records came from the record type "APCD." Birth Certificates/Fetal Death records showed the most options for race reporting, however many of these responses were "free response" entries. UCR records had the most informative racial identification, meaning that specific racial identities were identified in most of these records. Few were "Unknown" or "Null." "Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander" showed the highest fold increase. The values from "Exclusively" to "Ever" increased by 5.36X.

Conclusions: The UPDB GARDE Project is using these data collection methods to research how many people qualify for genetic risk testing based on family history records in UPDB. Future plans are to explore in further detail the "other" categories and determine if they are representative of a race option not available to the person filling out the form, or if it's a value assigned to "Unknown" races.

Presenter Name: Olivia McGlaughlin
Presentation Type: Poster
Presentation Format: In Person
Presentation #46
College: Medicine
School / Department: Population Health Sciences
Research Mentor: Nicola Camp
Time: 9:00 AM
Physical Location or Zoom link:

Ballroom