Data Disaggregation in Action: Filipino Americans Who Do Not Identify As Asian (Preprint)

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Abstract
BACKGROUND While the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) places Filipino Americans under the Asian category, some Filipino Americans may not identify as Asian and opt to identify as “other” or as Pacific Islander (PI). OBJECTIVE We examine here the extent to which Filipino Americans choose Pacific Islander or “other” instead of Asian using a large population-based survey of Californians. METHODS This study used data from the 2019, 2020, and 2021 rounds of the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), the largest state health survey in the United States, and one of the few data systems that includes write-in prompts for the collection of detailed race data. The study focused on participants who identified as Pacific Islanders and wrote-in 'Filipino,' those who selected 'Asian' and specified 'Filipino,' and respondents who selected 'other' and wrote-in 'Filipino' for their detailed race group. RESULTS Our analysis included 1,859 Filipino respondents of which 8.77% identified as Pacific Islander, 85.15% as Asian, and 6.08% as "other." Those who identified as PI tended to also identify as Latino/Hispanic, be older, and have U.S. citizenship compared to those who identified as Asian. CONCLUSIONS We recommend the inclusion of open-ended prompts in health surveys and the disaggregation of Filipino Americans from the general Asian category. We posit expanded data collection standards and region-based classifications for Asian subgroups can better capture the full extent of the diversity of the aggregate group. Further community-driven research is needed to address the specific health needs of Filipino Americans CLINICALTRIAL N/A

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