A schema for coding health equity scholarship within pediatric research

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Medical Education
• Public Health

Background:

• Institutions are increasingly focused on health equity scholarship.
• Existing methods for categorizing health equity scholarship are insufficient.
• Seattle Children's Research Institute aimed to quantify its health equity research output.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a reliable coding schema for classifying health equity scholarship.
• To assess the maturity of health equity scholarship in addressing inequities.
• To compare the new schema with existing filters for social determinants of health scholarship.

Main Methods:

• A coding schema was developed and tested for reliability using independent coders.
• Scholarship records were classified as health equity scholarship (yes/no) and assigned a maturity rating (1-5).
• Reliability testing included Fleiss kappas for inter-rater agreement, and sensitivity/specificity of an existing filter were assessed.

Main Results:

• High reliability was achieved for identifying health equity scholarship (Fleiss kappas ≥ .78).
• Moderate reliability was observed for categorizing scholarship maturity (Fleiss kappas ≥ .47).
• The new schema identified additional health equity scholarship missed by existing filters, with 23.3% of affiliated scholarship identified as health equity-focused.

Conclusions:

• A validated coding schema can effectively identify and categorize health equity scholarship.
• This tool aids in quantifying the health equity focus within research portfolios.
• The schema provides a standardized method for assessing institutional commitment to health equity research.