Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health

Population Health Research Brief Series

A New Tool for Handling Multiracial and Multi-Identity Data in Health Research

Gabriel J. Merrin

February 2026

Gabriel "Joey" Merrin

Lerner Center Population Health Research Brief Series

United States

Portrait of a smiling person with dark curly hair

Gabriel "Joey" Merrin

Abstract

The multiracial population now represents over 10% of the U.S. population and is the fastest growing racial group in the country. Yet researchers routinely collapse these individuals into an “other race” category rendering them invisible in health research. This brief introduces CATAcode, a free software tool that helps researchers handle check-all-that-apply demographic data more thoughtfully. The tool reveals how coding decisions dramatically affect who is represented in research—decisions that inform health policy and resource allocation. Even seemingly small methodological choices can mean the difference between communities being statistically invisible or present in findings.

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