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4 Scientific Criteria for Recommended Measures
Pages 45-50

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From page 45...
... In this chapter we discuss the purpose of data collection in each setting to determine which measures are relevant, and we touch on how the purpose and characteristics of each setting might influence how these data are collected. The committee first categorized data collection contexts into the three settings included in the statement of task (surveys and research, administrative settings, and clinical settings)
From page 46...
... These administrative settings are distinguished from each other because, although vital statistics data are often used for research purposes, their use for legal identification and other administrative purposes mean that they often need to meet regulatory or legal requirements that do not apply to other data collection contexts. ENUMERATION, SOCIAL RESEARCH, AND DEMOGRAPHY The most common data collection method for enumeration, social research, and demographic data collection is general population surveys.
From page 47...
... The lack of data collection on sexual orientation, gender identity, transgender experience, and intersex status as demographic measures in the decennial census or other large-scale federal population surveys, such the American Community Survey, means there is no "gold standard" against which data collections can perform weighting adjustments or assess data quality and nonresponse bias for LGBTQI+ populations. Although general population surveys in the United States have not consistently included measures to identify LGBTQI+ populations, over the past two decades a number of surveys have introduced measures of sexual orientation and -- to a lesser extent -- gender identity.
From page 48...
... As in other domains, there is considerable variation in whether data collection fields, internal coding, and public reporting explicitly reference "sex," "gender," some combination of the two, or neither. The clearest designations are the single measure of sex of an infant or decedent on original birth certificates and death certificates, respectively, both of which are completed by a proxy respondent and based on physical examination of one or more of the individual's sex traits (that 1 The Supreme Court recently noted that birth certificates are "more than a mere marker of biological relationships," they are "a form of legal recognition" (Marisa N
From page 49...
... Overall, in the vital statistics, data collection on transgender experience or sexual orientation is rare, while data collection on intersex status is nonexistent. This is partly because many of these documents serve foremost as forms of identification, and sexual orientation, transgender experience, transgender identity, and intersex status are not necessary for identification purposes.
From page 50...
... The possible implementation of routine data collection of measures of sexual orientation, gender identity, and transgender experience in vital statistics data poses several challenges that may affect data quality, particularly for measures of identity. One challenge is the role of proxy reporting, in which the respondent is providing information on someone else, a practice that is necessary when collecting data on infants and decedents.


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