Indigenous-led research, meaningful collaboration, and a sharing of knowledge and experiences between registers is needed to enhance ascertainment and quality of health register data for Indigenous peoples, according to a Kaupapa Māori review. The review included 17 studies, published between 1992 and 2020, which focused on the reporting of research involving Indigenous peoples using the CONSIDER checklist domains, ascertainment, and data quality. Aspects of 4 of 8 CONSIDER domains were identified to be included in study reporting. Barriers to ascertainment were themed as relating to ‘ethnicity data collection and quality’, ‘systems and structures’, ‘health services/health professionals’, and ‘perceptions of individual and communitylevel barriers’. Strategies to support ascertainment were categorised as ‘collaboration’, ‘finding people’, and ‘recruitment processes’. Strategies to support data quality were ‘collaboration’, ‘ethnicity data collection and quality’, ‘systems-level strategies’, and ‘health service/health professional-level strategies’. The authors noted that poor-quality data for Indigenous peoples in health registers prevents the achievement of health equity and exemplifies inaction. They found visible gaps in the breadth of strategies, particularly relating to the inclusion of Indigenous peoples in health register and research governance, and actions to identify and address institutional racism.
