Disparities in Processes and Outcomes of Care Across Asian/Pacific Islander Populations at Childbirth

Racial/ethnic disparities in the quality of care provided to mothers and infants during the birth hospitalizations result directly in avoidable death and morbidity. Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) represent the fastest growing racial/ethnic group (25% living in California) and they experience significant disparities in several

areas that are robust and merit policy and clinical attention. Unfortunately, research of AAPI populations suffers considerable limitations. First, few studies report on AAPI populations and those that do, usually aggregate to “Asian” or “Asian American and Pacific Islander”, masking the biological and sociocultural heterogeneity. Sec-

ond, sociodemographic and neighborhood factors are rarely available for studies of hospital quality at childbirth. Third, lack of multilevel adjustment undermines the validity of comparative assessments of quality by penalizing hospitals that care for vulnerable populations. To understand disparities in care processes and outcomes for AAPI mother/infants, we will undertake a compre-

hensive appraisal of the multilevel factors associated with quality of care during the birth hospitalization, promote fairer comparisons by making sociodemographic and neighborhood influences explicit; and assess key areas of quality using key performance metrics for care provided to mothers, low-risk newborns, and infants born very

low-birth-weight (VLBW;