I have to agree with this approach in general as National Statistics and other National Bodies generate data on ethnicity, not race,  which we all use to cross inform on an patients and indeed other public health and social interventions.

 

From a clinical & other research viewpoint, it may be necessary to consider how we get agreement on the use of the larger subset of ethnic options information ( that already lies under the standard template). I’m not sure that I would personally want to be faced with a list of 50-100 options of identity on each form that I fill in.

 

Regards

 

 

Wilfred Carneiro	T: 0208 725 4175
Equality and FT Membership Manager	F: 0208 725 3340
Directorate of Operations and Performance	E: [log in to unmask]
St. George's Healthcare NHS Trust	W: www.stgeorges.nhs.uk

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Health of minority ethnic communities in the UK [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Raj Bhopal
Sent: 20 January 2010 16:57
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Ethnicity versus race

 

I thought this work to be of sufficient general interest to publicise

widely-I hope you agree colleagues but forgive me if you do not:

 

Ethnicity has overtaken race in medical science: MEDLINE-based

comparison of trends in the USA and the rest of the world, 1965-2005

     Reza Afshari and Raj S Bhopal

     Int. J. Epidemiol. published 20 January 2010, 10.1093/ije/dyp382

     http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/extract/dyp382v1?ct=ct

 

Why do I think this? Our field is weakened by having several fundamental

competing but largely overlapping concepts, and I believe that Huxley

and Haddon`s 1935 recommendation to use Ethnicity was correct.

 

if you are agreeable, Walter, please forward to migrant and ethnic

health section; Narinder please forward to our ethnicity group; Dineke

please consider for the EUPHA newsletter.

--

Raj

 

R S Bhopal, Bruce and John Usher Professor of Public Health

Public Health Sciences Section,

Division of Community Health Sciences,

University of Edinburgh, Teviot Place, Edinburgh EH89AG

Telephone (0)1316503216 (switchboard extension 1000),

Fax (0)1316506909

 

Departmental website:

  http://www.chs.med.ed.ac.uk

 

Free books and documents on the Epidemic of Coronary Heart Disease in

South Asians

http://www.sahf.org.uk

 

The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in

Scotland, with registration number SC005336.