How Existing Definitions of Middle Eastern/North African Impact Our Understanding of the Population and their Outcomes

• In Event: 21003 - Constructing and Contesting Identities: Race, Representation, and Resistance in the MENA Region

Abstract

In March 2024, the Office of Management and Budget revised the federal standards of the race and ethnicity questions into a single combined question including an additional, distinct Middle Eastern/North African (MENA) category, set to be implemented by 2029. An understudied population in part due to data limitations, existing research has used a variety of methods and definitions to classify these individuals for analysis. This study examines how various definitions of MENA and related classifications inform our understanding of the population. The purpose of this study is threefold: 1) to consolidate existing definitions of the MENA population to explore differences and commonalities in the country of origin criteria across definitions, 2) to examine how the differences in definitions highlight or mask disparities observed in the population and, 3) to synthesize how these differences shape our understanding of experiences and outcomes within the MENA population. Using Detail Natality Data from 2016-2023, I compare variation across 22 definitions of MENA using two outcomes of interest, preterm birth and low birthweight, and find differing profiles of the population across definitions resulting in differences in odds of preterm birth and low birthweight.

Author

• Leila Moustafa, University of Wisconsin-Madison