The Connecticut Health Foundation (CT Health) www.cthealth.org awarded Khmer Health Advocates Inc. (KHA) www.cambodianhealth.org based in Hartford, a one year $48,000 grant to fund the Southeast Asian American Equity Project. This project advocates for the collection of granular data for Race, Ethnicity, and Language (REL).
“We believe that data must be granular enough to identify people from small ethnic groups in order to address all racial and ethnic health disparities,” said Theanvy Kuoch, Executive Director for KHA.
He reports, “In Connecticut, granular data collection has helped us see that rates of diabetes and hypertension are significantly higher with almost 50 percent of Cambodians having diabetes or pre-diabetes. These numbers are in direct contrast to state-wide reports that identify Asian Americans as the healthiest members in the state.”
Summing up, Garrick Wong, Program Officer at CT Health said, “Support from the foundation will enable KHA to engage researchers to examine current policies and practices around REL data collection in the state, develop a set of policy recommendations to advance granular REL data collection and reporting, and engage communities to advocate for these policy priorities.”