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Name

Instructor

Institution

Date

1. a) What is the NCHS (what do the letters stand for, and what level of government operates

it – local, state, or federal)?

NCHS stands for the National Center for health statistics. NCHS operates at a federal

level of government because all states just like North Carolina are funded by NCHS and are

supposed to submit important records that incorporate NCHS coding for demographic and racial

information (Paul et al 395).

b) How many fixed racial categories are recognized by the NCHS in its data collection and

reporting system for births?

They are 10 fixed racial categories that NCHS designates in creating official statistics.

c) In contrast, how many different text versions of race did North Carolina mothers write-in

when asked to identify their own race?

They gave six hundred text versions of races as captured by EBC system for 117,949

births.
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2. What determines the racial classification of a baby born in North Carolina? In other words, if a

baby is listed as “American Indian” on a state health department electronic birth record, how did

that term “American Indian” arrive in that birth record since the baby cannot tell us how it

self-identifies?

Before 1990, the race of the parents was used to determine the race of the child by

subjecting them to a complex algorithm. Again in NCHS, the races of the mother and child are

similar, meaning if the mother’s race is “American Indian” as recorded in the EBC system then

the child’s race is the same.

3. What is the BRFSS, and how is data collected for this?

BFRSS is a random telephone survey of people aged eighteen years and above. Here data

collection is through conducting a survey that focuses in obtaining answers to some health-

related problems, ethnicity and race questions whereby after determining a respondent is Latino

or Hispanic, the rest is answered via telephone so as to hear the best races he or she hails. It

adheres to the federal policy of classifying ethnicities and races (Paul et al 395).

And, when data is collected, how do the racial categories in the BRFSS compare with the racial

categories that the NCHS uses for converting text entries on birth and death certificates?

Comparing racial categories for BFRSS and NCHS on how they arrived at, is that in

BFRSS, after determining ethnicity, racial category is obtained by providing the respondents

with a list of choices from which they select a race which best suits them it through a telephone
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while for NCHS case, informant is instructed to write a specific race hence respondents cannot

freely give self-identify since the parent or friend are the ones to dictate (Paul et al 395).

4. What determines the racial classification of a person listed in the North Carolina Central

Cancer Registry? In other words, if a person is listed as “American Indian” in that cancer

registry, WHO decided that “American Indian” was the correct identity, and HOW was this

determined?

Here, racial classifications are determined by Hispanics’ cancer records in the cancer

registry as found by an office clerk in that particular hospital. For instance, if a person is

outlined as “American Indian” it follows that the admission official clerks decided it basing on

visual condition as provided in the hospital. Actually, this method relies on data obtained from

929 cases of cancer patients from the year 1996 to 2000 for Hispanic ethnic people. In this

research, the majority by 83.5% were found to belong to the white race (Paul et al 395).

5. According to NCHS coding specifications, if a woman lists her race on a birth certificate as

“Hispanic,” when the state health department converts the information into an electronic record

for reporting to the NCHS, how should the race be reported as?

She will be reported as white. This is because NCHS coding has included hundreds of

terms in its appendix so that one can input them in an important certificate. These terms have

been grouped so that they indicate their identity in the 10 racial fixed categories (Paul et al 395).
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For example, Moroccan, Turk, Egyptian, Mexican, Hispanic, Persian, Puerto Rican, Cuban,

Yugoslavian, Syrian will be coded “white”.

6. In North Carolina, what are two health behaviors that distinguish women who self-identify as

Hispanic from women who self-identify as white? In other words, when we look at public health

data for North Carolina, we see that Hispanic women have a lower rate of one health behavior

compared to white women, and a higher rate of another health behavior compared to white

women. Identify the two health behaviors.

These first health behaviors are the smoking habit of a Hispanic mother during pregnancy

and a relatively low weight of their newborn babies while the other health behavior is the

relatively high birth percentage with a prenatal care that begins when the first trimester ends or

without prenatal care.

7. How is our understanding of health disparities affected by the situation described in this

research article? Do NOT quote directly from the article, and do NOT quote the specific data in

Table 2 – instead, just try to explain the effect in your own words, as if you were telling a family

member who is not familiar with public health and statistical reporting of health data.

A difference that emerges between Reclassification of total live births records to create a

standardized racial category and self-reported information from the mother affects health

disparity such as birth weight, maternal smoking, birth count late or total lack of prenatal care.
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This is because original information determines what will appear in the racial categories for

future analysis. Also, the continuous growth of the Hispanic population strongly affects it.

Hispanic ethnicity is known to have unique health trends and some health behaviors which alter

their health disparity.

8. Based on data for reported cases of Gonorrhea in California in 2016:

a) What are the six racial/ethnic categories that the California Department of Public Health uses

for reporting Gonorrhea cases?

These races/ethnic groups are native American/Alaskan native, Asian/Pacific Islander,

African American/black, Hispanic/Latino, white and multi/other/unknown.

b) For each of the six racial/ethnic categories, what is the total number of cases AND total rate of

cases? You can make a list, or a table, that identifies each category and then shows the number

and rate next to the category.

Race/ethnic group Total no. of Total rate of cases

cases

native American/Alaskan 26 15.7

native

Asian/Pacific Islander 326 6.2

African American/black 779 34.5

Hispanic/Latino 2295 4.9

white 1942 12.8

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multi/other/unknown 529 -

c) Does the racial/ethnic group with the lowest NUMBER of cases of gonorrhea also have the

lowest RATE? Defend your argument with specific evidence from the data table.

No, because it is the one with the highest total number of rates as indicated by the data

from the table. Native American racial group exhibit this situation. They have the lowest total

number of cases and highest total number of rates.

9. Based on the data for drug overdose deaths in West Virginia during the years 2012-2015:

a) What racial categories does West Virginia use to report this data?

There are four racial categories used by West Virginia to report data on overdose deaths

in the year 2012 to 2015. These are all races except white and black non-Hispanic and the others.

The number of deaths, in this case, has a disparity. For example, in table 7 which tabulates

occurrence of a drug overdose for combined types of drugs effect to all racial category presented

above. Here, the number of deaths of all races, white and black non-Hispanic increased from the

year 2012 to 2015 but for other races increases from the year 2012 to 2013 and then decreases

from that year to 2015.

b) Is there a disparity in the numbers of deaths when you compare the racial categories? Defend

your argument with at least ONE example of the reported numbers, based on evidence in the data
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tables.

The number of deaths, in this case, has a disparity. For example, in table 7 which

tabulates occurrence of a drug overdose for combined types of drugs effect to all racial category

presented above. Here, the number of deaths of all races, white and black non-Hispanic

increased from the year 2012 to 2015 but for other races increases from the year 2012 to 2013

and then decreases from that year to 2015.

10. Based on the 2015 data for New Jersey adults age 65 and older who say they got a flu shot

(“Influenza Vaccination”) in the past 12 months, how do black residents compare with white and

Hispanic residents (as a group, are black senior citizens overall doing better, worse, or about the

same as each of the other groups)? Defend your argument with reported percentages, based on

what you see on the bar graph or data table.

The black senior citizens are doing better compared to white and Hispanic senior citizens.

This is evident from the data in the table whereby black have a lower percentage estimate for

immunization of 47.8% as compared to those of white and Hispanic whose estimated

percentages are 62.8% and 55.4% respectively.

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Work cited

Paul A. Buescher, Ziya Gizlice and Kathleen A. Jones-Vessey Source: Public Health Reports

(1974-), Vol. 120, No. 4, Disparities in Children's Health and HealthCare (Jul. - Aug., 2005), pp.

393-398

https://www26.state.nj.us/doh-shad/indicator/view/ImmFlu.Community.html

https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/CDPH%20Document%20Library/ST

D-Data-Gonorrhea-Tables.pdf

http://dhhr.wv.gov/oeps/disease/ob/documents/opioid/wv-drug-overdoses-2001_2

015.pdf