Table 2

Comparison of Observer-Recorded and Self-Reported Race Values*
Observer-Recorded Race
 Self-reported Race**


Hispanic White
 Hispanic Black
 White
 AA
 AIAN
 API
 Total
Hispanic White
 32,631§
 1,173
 7,472
 442
 100
 896
 42,714

82.97%
 47.57%
 1.02%
 0.25%
 2.89%
 6.88%

76.39%
 2.75%
 17.49%
 1.03%
 0.23%
 2.10%
Hispanic Black
 1,473
 657
 712
 399
 9
 70
 3,320

3.75%
 26.64%
 0.10%
 0.22%
 0.26%
 0.54%

44.37%
 19.79%
 21.45%
 12.02%
 0.27%
 2.11%
White
 4,883
 83
 712,524
 9,638
 2,013
 6,160
 735,301

12.42%
 3.37%
 97.56%
 5.43%
 58.20%
 47.29%

0.66%
 0.01%
 96.90%
 1.31%
 0.27%
 0.84%
AA
 203
 546
 8,160
 166,876
 213
 1,256
 177,254

0.52%
 22.14%
 1.12%
 93.99%
 6.16%
 9.64%

0.11%
 0.31%
 4.60%
 94.15%
 0.12%
 0.71%
AIAN
 64
 4
 937
 116
 1,100
 51
 2,272

0.16%
 0.16%
 0.13%
 0.07%
 31.80%
 0.39%

2.82%
 0.18%
 41.24%
 5.11%
 48.42%
 2.24%
API
 76
 3
 526
 70
 24
 4,592
 5,291

0.19%
 0.12%
 0.07%
 0.04%
 0.69%
 35.26%

1.44%
 0.06%
 9.94%
 1.32%
 0.45%
 86.79%
Total
 39,330
 2,466
 730,331
 177,541
 3,459
 13,025
 966,152

* AA indicates African American; AIAN, American Indian or Alaska Native; API, Asian or Pacific Islander.

** The race/ethnicity categories in this table are consistent with the old VA standards used before May 2003. The race/ethnicity categories in the self-reported data were mapped to the old standards as follows: Hispanic ethnicity and White and Black races were combined respectively into Hispanic White and Hispanic Black, and Asian and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander race groups were combined into Asian and Pacific Islander. Veterans with multiracial values, veterans with race values reported by observation or proxy, veterans with missing or unknown race values, and veterans who reported Hispanic ethnicity but no or non-AA minority race are excluded.

§ Each cell in this table has three numbers; the first number indicates frequency; the second number, column percent; the third number, row percent.

Sohn et al. Population Health Metrics 2006 4:7   doi:10.1186/1478-7954-4-7