Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

The total population in California has been increasing over the last few years and California is one of the states that has the highest share of minority population in the U.S. Using the California Health Interview Survey from 2011 to 2017, this study examines the disparity in health behaviors across different minority groups in California and link that with health outcomes such as self-reported health status and obesity.

Furthermore, this paper will compare the results from California to the national estimate using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) continuous data. The NHANES data contains information on both subjective and objective measures of health, including smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and obesity. The second part of the paper further examines the differential role of reporting error by race and ethnicity for different health behaviors and health conditions. In essence, this part of the study will capture to what extent the disparities in health outcomes and health behaviors across different race/ethnicity can be explained by differential reporting error.