Ethnicity classification systems for public health surveys: experiences from HIV behavioural surveillance among men who
- PDF / 592,468 Bytes
- 13 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 81 Downloads / 190 Views
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
Ethnicity classification systems for public health surveys: experiences from HIV behavioural surveillance among men who have sex with men Nathan J. Lachowsky1* , Peter J.W. Saxton2, Nigel P. Dickson3, Anthony J. Hughes4, Rhys G. Jones5, Terryann C. Clark6, Elsie Ho7, Alastair J.S. Summerlee8 and Cate E. Dewey9
Abstract Background: Race and ethnicity classification systems have considerable implications for public health, including the potential to reveal or mask inequities. Given increasing “super-diversity” and multiple racial/ethnic identities in many global settings, especially among younger generations, different ethnicity classification systems can underrepresent population heterogeneity and can misallocate and render invisible Indigenous people and ethnic minorities. We investigated three ethnicity classification methods and their relationship to sample size, sociodemographics and sexual health indicators. Methods: We examined data from New Zealand’s HIV behavioural surveillance programme for men who have sex with men (MSM) in 2006, 2008, 2011, and 2014. Participation was voluntary, anonymous and self-completed; recruitment was via community venues and online. Ethnicity allowed for multiple responses; we investigated three methods of dealing with these: Prioritisation, Single/Combination, and Total Response. Major ethnic groups included Asian, European, indigenous Māori, and Pacific. For each classification method, statistically significant associations with ethnicity for demographic and eight sexual health indicators were assessed using multivariable logistic regression. Results: Overall, 10,525 MSM provided ethnicity data. Classification methods produced different sample sizes, and there were ethnic disparities for every sexual health indicator. In multivariable analysis, when compared with European MSM, ethnic differences were inconsistent across classification systems for two of the eight sexual health outcomes: Māori MSM were less likely to report regular partner condomless anal intercourse using Prioritisation or Total Response but not Single/Combination, and Pacific MSM were more likely to report an STI diagnosis when using Total Response but not Prioritisation or Single/Combination. (Continued on next page)
* Correspondence: [email protected] 1 School of Public Health and Social Policy, Faculty of Human and Social Development, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC V8Q 2Y2, Canada Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a cr
Data Loading...
