Report reveals high rate of heart attack amongst ethnic minorities i...( The incidence of heart attack amongst S...),Health

Researchers say that the health of ethnic minorities in Scotland can now be better assessed and improved as census information can be linked to records of illness and death. The findings of their study may lead to health databases being 'seeded' with codes, to discover the true picture of health amongst ethnic minorities.

The demonstration project, funded by the Scottish Executive, was prompted by previous research in the UK which shows more health problems, including higher than average death rates from heart disease, are found amongst men and women born in the Indian sub continent. Reasons for this are believed to include generally poorer socio-economic status, environmental factors, barriers to accessing health services, genetic factors and the effects of racism.

Raj Bhopal, leader of the project and Professor of Public Health at the University, explained: "Scotland has high quality databases about hospital admissions, but they do not include information about the patient's ethnic group because this information is not routinely collected. As a result, we have had no reliable information about how health and the use of health services vary between different ethnic groups. The research team, which included staff from the Information and Statistics Division (ISD) and the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS), ran this pilot project to test different methods of making better use of existing databases.

"Our approach was to combine information from a variety of sources including hospital and census records using new computerised linkage methods. The project included strict controls to ensure the confidentiality of individual personal information, and to test the methods, the team focused on the example of heart disease. Previous research in Engl
'"/>

Contact: Linda Menzies
Linda.Menzies@ed.ac.uk
44-131-650-6382
University of Edinburgh
17-Aug-2005