Methodology to identify Iranian immigrants for epidemiological studies

Area of Science:

• Epidemiology
• Population Health
• Cancer Research

Background:

• Administrative databases often lack ethnicity data, hindering cancer pattern analysis.
• Identifying specific ethnic groups within large datasets presents a significant methodological challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a method for identifying Iranian individuals within British Columbia (BC), Canada.
• To facilitate the study of cancer patterns among the Iranian population using the BC Cancer Registry.

Main Methods:

• Generated lists of common Iranian surnames and given names from a telephone directory and a breast cancer screening program.
• Manually reviewed and coded names as 'highly probable' or 'probable' Iranian.
• Created a name directory and linked it with the BC Cancer Registry to identify Iranian cancer cases.

Main Results:

• A substantial number of common Iranian names were identified from both sources.
• The majority of identified names were coded as 'highly probable' Iranian (98% surnames, 96% given names).
• Overlap was observed between names from the telephone directory and the screening program (12% surnames, 10% given names).

Conclusions:

• Distinctive ethnic names, such as Iranian surnames and given names, can effectively identify individuals in the absence of direct ethnicity data.
• This surname and name-based approach is a valuable tool for epidemiological research on specific ethnic populations within administrative health databases.