Moving Beyond One-Dimensional Data Collection
This article, published in BMC Oral Health, explores how current data collection practices can perpetuate inequities by rendering some groups invisible or misrepresented.
Researchers from CareQuest Institute and the University of Minnesota conducted qualitative interviews with individuals often excluded from oral health research due to race, ethnicity, language, disability, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Study participants provided suggestions to improve oral health data collection, including:
- Engage in participatory research practices
- Understand and respect data ownership
- Build trusting relationships through collaboration and transparency
- Allow participants to choose more than one option in demographic responses or write in responses
The findings underscore the importance of moving beyond one-dimensional data collection and adopting methods that capture the complexity of individuals’ lived experiences. The authors write:
Data collection processes in research inform decision-making and resource allocation . . . incomplete or inequitable data can lead to potentially harmful oral health care and policy-making decisions.”
Read the article in BMC Oral Health (open access)
You may also be interested in:
- Inequities Among LGBTQIA+ People of Color: How Race and Identity Shape Oral Health Outcomes, a report examining the compounded oral health inequities individuals with intersecting identities experience.
- American Indian and Alaska Native Communities Face a ‘Disproportionate Burden of Oral Disease’, a comprehensive white paper that includes information about the importance of more accurate and inclusive data collection within Native Communities.
- Exploring Oral Health and Care Access among Adults with Disabilities, a report that investigates the challenges in accessing oral health care for one-quarter of US adults that have at least one disability.