• Grace F Chao, Jonel Emlaw, Alexander S Chiu, Jie Yang, Jyothi Thumma, Alexandria Brackett, and Kevin Y Pei.
• National Clinician Scholars Program, Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI; Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI; Department of Surgery, New Haven, CT. Electronic address: grace.f.chao@yale.edu.
• J. Am. Coll. Surg. 2021 May 1; 232 (5): 682689.e5682-689.e5.

BackgroundIf Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) are not recognized within patients in health services research, we miss an opportunity to ensure health equity in patient outcomes. However, it is unknown what the rates are of AAPIs inclusion in surgical outcomes research.Study DesignThrough a scoping review, we used Covidence to search MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Scopus, and CINAHL for studies published in 2008-2018 using NSQIP data. NSQIP was chosen because of its national scope, widespread use in research, and coding inclusive of AAPI patients. We examined the proportion of studies representing AAPI patients in the demographic characteristics and Methods, Results, or Discussion section. We then performed multivariable logistic regression to examine associations between study characteristics and AAPI inclusion.ResultsIn 1,264 studies included for review, 62% included race. Overall, only 22% (n = 278) of studies included AAPI patients. Of studies that included race, 35% represented AAPI patients in some component of the study. We found no association between sample size or publication year and inclusion. Studies were significantly more likely to represent AAPI patients when there was a higher AAPI population in the region of the first author's institution (lowest vs highest tercile; p < 0.001). Studies with a focus on disparities were more likely to include AAPI patients (p = 0.001).ConclusionsOur study is the first to examine AAPI representation in surgical outcomes research. We found < 75% of studies examine race, despite availability within NSQIP. Little more than one-third of studies including race reported on AAPI patients as a separate group. To provide the best care, we must include AAPI patients in our research.Copyright © 2021 American College of Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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