Underlying Properties of Health Disparity Indices

• Activity Number: 508
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 4, 2010 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Health Policy Statistics Section
• Author(s): Stuart A. Gansky*+ and Nancy F. Cheng and Gloria C. Mejia
• Companies: University of California, San Francisco and University of California, San Francisco and University of California, San Francisco
• Keywords: Health Concentration Index ; Taylor Series Linearization ; Theil's Index ; Inequity ; Inequality

Abstract

The National Center for Health Statistics recommends using health disparities indices (HDIs). Some authors claim all HDIs are prevalence dependent. Recent work varying prevalence with constant odds ratio (i.e. logit model) showed some HDIs depend on prevalence (Cheng et al. 2008). This investigation studied how sample size, effect size and prevalence affect HDIs conditional on prevalence difference (i.e. probit model). HDIs were estimated for the California Oral Health Needs Assessment 2004, a complex survey, to assess associations with untreated caries. Absolute measure, slope index of inequality, relative index of inequality(mean), and absolute concentration index were prevalence invariant; relative measures depended on prevalence. We also review the recent NCI/SEER HD*Calc freeware. Support: USDHHS NIH/NIDCR R03DE018116.