As our globe is becoming
increasingly interconnected, conducting epidemiology studies in multiple countries
is becoming more important. Furthermore,
as many countries are experiencing increased
population diversity (e.g., USA,
Australia, Canada and UK), conducting studies across
multi-ethnic populations is becoming ever more relevant.
However, defining
‘ethnicity’ is not a simple matter because ethnicity not only concerns race,
but is actually a form of social grouping based on cultural factors such as language,
lifestyle, religion, food and ancestry. Capturing
ethnicity data is important for population health studies because factors such
as diet, genetics, use of herbal medication or Eastern medical practices such
as acupuncture, etc. influence health outcome.
When it comes to
conducting epidemiology studies:
- How can you access population health data from different countries?
- What considerations do you have to take into account when comparing data across different regions?
- What constitutes an ethnically distinct population?
- What data on ethnicity are being collected in health databases?
The good
news is that you do not have to wait too much longer to get some answers on
these questions.
The 6th Asian Conference on
Pharmacoepidemiology (ACPE) will be held in Beijing, China
from October 28-30 this year, and this might be a great opportunity to learn
more about conducting studies in Asian and other populations. The term "Asian" may actually have
different meanings to different people around the world. In general, “Asian” refers to people having
origins in the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent (for
example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the
Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam).
Dr. Judith K. Jones (MD, PhD), an
internationally recognized expert in the areas of adverse drug reactions and pharmacoepidemiology,
will be attending the 3-day conference.
There, Dr. Jones will be talking about “Future Opportunities in
Pharmacoepidemiology in Asia”.
Dr. Jones
is also the Executive Director of the non-profit organization DGI, LLC, and Chief
Editor of B.R.I.D.G.E.
TO DATA® (www.bridgetodata.org), a
subscription online directory describing epidemiologic and population health
databases. Currently, there are ~150 database and
registry profiles from 22 countries,
including some from China, Japan, India,
South Korea, and Taiwan.
Each profile includes 75 data fields describing the database, population,
coding systems, data on drugs/diagnoses/procedures, cost information,
validation & linkage, and provides some administrative information, as well
as a list of recent publications.
B.R.I.D.G.E. TO DATA® can help researchers find and compare databases that
cover populations from different regions of the world, as well as determine if
data elements such as ethnicity, and other sociodemographic data are captured
in a database of interest. In order for ethnicity data to be of use in
epidemiology studies, databases must collect that information consistently. The profiles listed in BRIDGE
describe the type of ethnicity data captured, and any issues involved in
assessing ethnicity for a particular data source. For example, in
some countries such as France,
collecting information on ethnicity is not acceptable, even for research
purposes. In other countries, it is
particularly important to capture data on ethnic minority groups so that
medical care is not overlooked in these underrepresented populations; however,
sometimes sample weight adjustments are required. Interestingly, in an effort to avoid
detailing information on race, databases commonly record “spoken language of
patient” as a surrogate for ethnicity.
If you plan on
attending ACPE and would like to meet Dr. Jones and/or learn more about B.R.I.D.G.E. TO DATA®, then post a comment with your
information or e-mail us at info@bridgetodata.org.
