Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2006 Aug;41(4 Pt 1):1469-81.
doi: 10.1111/j.1475-6773.2006.00550.x.

Using a Spanish surname match to improve identification of Hispanic women in Medicare administrative data

Iris I Wei  1 , Beth A Virnig, Dolly A John, Robert O Morgan
Affiliations

Using a Spanish surname match to improve identification of Hispanic women in Medicare administrative data

Iris I Wei et al. Health Serv Res. 2006 Aug.

Abstract

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of a Spanish surname match for improving the identification of Hispanic women in Medicare administrative data in which Hispanics are historically underrepresented.

Data sources: We collected self-identified race/ethnicity data (N=2,997) from a mailed survey sent to elderly Medicare beneficiaries who resided in 11 geographic areas consisting of eight metropolitan counties and three nonmetropolitan areas (171 counties) in the fall of 2004. The 1990 Census Spanish Surname list was used to identify Hispanics in the Medicare data. In addition, we used data published on the U.S. Census Bureau website to obtain estimates of elderly Hispanics.

Study design: We used self-identified race/ethnicity as the gold standard to examine the agreement with Medicare race code alone, and with Medicare race code+Spanish surname match. Additionally, we estimated the proportions of Hispanic women and men, in each of the 11 geographic areas in our survey, using the Medicare race code alone and the Medicare race code+Spanish surname match, and compared those estimates with estimates derived from U.S. Census 2000 data.

Principal findings: The Spanish surname match dramatically increased the accuracy of the Medicare race code for identifying both Hispanic and white women, producing improvements comparable with those seen for men.

Conclusions: We recommend the addition of a proxy race code in the Medicare data using the Spanish surname match to improve the accuracy of racial/ethnic representation.To assess the effectiveness of a Spanish surname match for improving the identification of Hispanic women in Medicare administrative data in which Hispanics are historically underrepresented. We collected self-identified race/ethnicity data (N=2,997) from a mailed survey sent to elderly Medicare beneficiaries who resided in 11 geographic areas consisting of eight metropolitan counties and three nonmetropolitan areas (171 counties) in the fall of 2004. The 1990 Census Spanish Surname list was used to identify Hispanics in the Medicare data. In addition, we used data published on the U.S. Census Bureau website to obtain estimates of elderly Hispanics. We used self-identified race/ethnicity as the gold standard to examine the agreement with Medicare race code alone, and with Medicare race code+Spanish surname match. Additionally, we estimated the proportions of Hispanic women and men, in each of the 11 geographic areas in our survey, using the Medicare race code alone and the Medicare race code+Spanish surname match, and compared those estimates with estimates derived from U.S. Census 2000 data. The Spanish surname match dramatically increased the accuracy of the Medicare race code for identifying both Hispanic and white women, producing improvements comparable with those seen for men. We recommend the addition of a proxy race code in the Medicare data using the Spanish surname match to improve the accuracy of racial/ethnic representation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Estimated Percentages of Elderly Hispanic Men
Figure 2
Figure 2
Estimated Percentages of Elderly Hispanic Women
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Arday S L, Arday D R, Monroe S, Zhang J. HCFA's Racial and Ethnic Data: Current Accuracy and Recent Improvements. Health Care Financing Review. 2000;21(4):107–16. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Eggers P W, Greenberg L G. Racial and Ethnic Differences in Hospitalization Rates among Aged Medicare Beneficiaries, 1998. Health Care Financing Review. 2000;21(4):91–105. - PubMed
    1. Eggers P W, Prihoda R. Pre-Enrollment Reimbursement Patterns of Medicare Beneficiaries Enrolled in ‘At-Risk’ HMOs. Health Care Financing Review. 1982;4(1):55–73. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Gornick M E, Eggers P W, Reilly T W, Mentnech R M, Fitterman L K, Kucken L E, Vladeck B C. Effects of Race and Income on Mortality and Use of Services among Medicare Beneficiaries. New England Journal of Medicine. 1996;335(11):791–9. - PubMed
    1. Hazuda H P, Comeaux P J, Stern M P, Haffner S M, Eifler C W, Rosenthal M. A Comparison of Three Indicators for Identifying Mexican Americans in Epidemiologic Research. Methodological Findings from the San Antonio Heart Study. American Journal of Epidemiology. 1986;123(1):96–112. - PubMed

Publication types