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NHS Evidence – ethnicity
and health
AA service supplied to NHS Evidence by CEEHD
Newsletter 10
June 2010
The newsletter highlights news and developments in
ethnicity and health, lists additions to our collection and provides
information on forthcoming events. Please feel free to distribute this
newsletter to any interested colleagues, friends and relevant e-mail
networks.
News
Ethnicity testing for adoption
The leading article in the current
issue of ‘Archives of Disease in Childhood’ discusses the
increasing use of commercial “DNA ancestry or ethnicity testing
kits” that use blood or saliva to “provide a breakdown of racial
origins” for social care workers when looking to place a child in
fostering or adoption. As well as disregarding the cultural, religious
and linguistic characteristics of ethnicity, this testing has contributed to an
“excessive emphasis” on the ethnic needs of a child’s
placement over other relevant factors such the child’s “health and
development needs”. The authors conclude that these tests can reach
incorrect conclusions, and even when correct only give vague hints about
culture, religion and language and so “their use for determination of
ethnicity should be strongly discouraged”.
Ethnic differences in blood
pressure begin in adolescence
A recent study
published in ‘Hypertension’ has discovered that divergences
in blood pressure between white and ethnic minority groups begin in adolescence
and are “particularly striking” for boys. The study also
found that socioeconomic disadvantage had a “disproportionate
effect” on blood pressure for ethnic minority girls. The results
signal the need for the early prevention of cardiovascular diseases that could
have adverse effects in later life, especially for young people of minority
ethnic origin.
New ‘Better Health’
website
The Race Equality Foundation has launched the
‘Better Health’
website which has been designed to help frontline practitioners implement
evidence based practice in their workplace as well as the promotion of race
equality in their everyday work. The site also hosts the newest editions
of the “Better Health” briefing series. SCEH/ CEEHD welcome
this new site, and are working closely with REF on this initiative.
New Additions
The following resources have been added to
the ethnicity and health specialist collection during April and May.
Cancer:
Oral
cancer screening in the Bangladeshi community of Tower Hamlets: a social model
Incidence of oral cancer in the UK has risen
by 22% in the last decade, with certain black and minority ethnic groups having
an elevated risk of developing the condition due to certain risk factor
behaviours. This paper describes an oral cancer screening activity appropriate
to the needs of a Bangladeshi community at high risk of oral cancer, which was
carried out between 2006 and 2008 in Tower Hamlets, East London.
Current evidence indicates that there are
disparities in uptake rates for screening programmes between UK ethnic minority
groups and the white population. This study explores the barriers to the
uptake of sigmoidoscopy (FS) screening among ethnic minorities in the UK.
The
risk of prostate cancer amongst black men in the United Kingdom: the PROCESS
cohort study
In the US, African American men have a
greater risk of developing prostate cancer than white men. This study
investigates whether the same is true for first generation black Caribbean and
black African men in the UK.
Cardiovascular Disease:
A comparison of out-of-hospital cardiac
arrest (OOHCA) characteristics in white and south Asian populations in Greater
London.
Blood pressure is known to track from late
childhood to adulthood and this may give some indication to the cause of ethnic
differences in cardiovascular disease (CVD). This study explores ethnic
differences in changes to blood pressure between early and late adolescence in
the UK. A related study investigating the relationship between
inflammatory markers and ethnic differences in CVD conducted with infants is
available here.
Client Groups:
Healthy
ageing, healthy living project
This report of a project conducted by Age
Concern looks into increasing the participation of older people from
non-mainstream groups in health promotion activity. As a result of the
project, patient information was made available by Age Concern for African
- Caribbean and south
Asian older people.
Inequalities
experienced by Gypsy and Traveller communities: a review
Evidence from a wide range of gypsies' and
travellers' experiences is drawn together by this review to set out clearly the
full extent of the inequalities and discrimination they face. A review of
existing evidence provides a basis to address these inequalities.
A description is given of the interactions
between a specialist teacher and a nursery-aged pre-lingual deaf child from a
Somali speaking family, where English is an additional language.
The
involvement of Chinese older people in policy and practice: aspirations and
expectations
The active involvement of Chinese older
people in research and the promotion of their quality of life are explored in
this report.
Asylum seekers and refugees are more likely
to experience poorer mental health than native populations. This research
audit and good practice guide on the provision of mental health services and
the mental health needs of refugees and asylum seekers is intended for use by
health providers, service users, local authorities and other key statutory and
voluntary agencies working with refugees and asylum seekers in London.
More and more people are choosing the
‘direct payments’ scheme for personal assistance over those
services supplied by local authorities. This discussion paper explains
the legislation on ‘direct payments’, summarises the growing
research that indicates black and minority ethnic (BME) service users and
carers are not fully able to access ‘direct payments’ and explores
ways in which the ‘direct payments’ scheme can be effective for BME
service users and carers.
Cultural Competence:
Patient
satisfaction with different interpreting methods: a randomized controlled trial
As a result of increasing numbers of
limited-English-proficient (LEP) patients, a number of different interpreting
methods for these patients have been developed. This randomised
controlled trial evaluates the impact of interpreting method on patient
satisfaction in a USA setting.
Diabetes:
It is government policy to involve service
users in research, but there is a lack of published research about involving
patients from minority ethnic groups and people from deprived areas. This
study aims to discover the desired research priorities of people with diabetes
from a multicultural inner city community and compare these with expert-led
research priorities.
Ethnicity Linked Disorders:
The
social consequences of sickle cell and thalassaemia: improving the quality of
support
This is number 17 in the Race Equality
Foundation’s, “Better Health” briefing series. (See news
story above about their ‘Better Health’ site)
Health Promotion and Preventative
Services:
This systematic review examines participation
in sport and physical recreation by black and minority ethnic communities in
the UK.
Infectious Diseases:
The concept of the informed or 'expert'
patient who is able to have a meaningful input into the direction and
management of their own health care and treatment has increasingly dominated discourse
concerning health and wellbeing in the UK. This study investigates how
migrants from Africa with HIV perceive their relationships with their doctor
and how this affects their treatment and health care.
Mental Health:
The Ethnic Minorities Dementia Advocacy Project
(EMDAP) aimed to raise awareness of dementia and dementia advocacy amongst
black and minority ethnic (BME) communities, make existing advocacy services
aware of the need to make their services more accessible to BME communities and
to support advocacy providers through training and the sharing of
expertise. This report evaluates the success of the project.
Celebrating
our cultures: guidelines for mental health promotion with black and minority
communities
This guide is intended for use by public
health and health promotion specialists, voluntary sector workers, primary care
workers, mental health workers and local authority workers amongst others and
aims to provide information and evidence about mental health promotion, support
local workers to plan and deliver effective interventions, and offer examples
of mental health promotion with different communities. Specific guidance
is available for those working with African
- Caribbean and south
Asian communities as well as for those working with refugees
and asylum seekers.
An investigation by the National Survivor
User Network into the experiences of black and minority ethnic people's
participation in mental health service user involvement initiatives.
The overwhelming message from the BME Suicide
Prevention Project is that more information and better knowledge of prevention
is needed for services to be equitable and for BME groups to benefit from the
success of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy (NSPS).
Suicide
rates in people of south Asian origin in England and Wales: 1993-2003
As ethnicity is not recorded on death
certificates, calculating suicide rates for south Asians in the UK is
difficult. Using new technology this study aims to calculate and assess
changes over time for south Asian origin population suicide rates.
Neurological Disorders:
Cross-language
generalization following treatment in bilingual speakers with aphasia: a review
This review focuses on the potential transfer
or generalisation of positive effects from a treated to an untreated language
in bilingual or multilingual people with primary acquired aphasia.
The need to develop effective culturally
appropriate clinical approaches for minority ethnic adults with communication
impairments is highlighted by demographic and epidemiological trends coupled
with the healthcare needs of ethnic minority populations. With a special
focus on bilingual adults with aphasia this study explores the current clinical
needs and complexities in service delivery to communicatively impaired minority
ethnic adults.
Respiratory Disorders:
Factors related to asthma, including
morbidity, prevalence, adverse events, mortality and healthcare utilization,
vary widely among ethnic and other socio-demographic groups.
Recommendations have been made to report and analyse ethnic and demographic
information in clinical trials as a means of tackling this variation.
This systematic review aims to determine the extent to which ethnic and other
socio-demographic information is reported in publications from randomised
controlled trials of asthma interventions.
Service Delivery:
Access
to services with interpreters: user views
The Home Office Citizenship Survey in 2001
indicated that 36% of people from minority ethnic groups spoke languages other
than English at home with just under 14% of them needing somebody to interpret some
or all of the questions for them in the survey. This report investigates
the experiences of people who need interpreters to access and use health,
welfare and other services.
Effective
methods of engaging black and minority ethnic communities within health care
settings
This is number 18 in the Race Equality
Foundation’s “Better Health” briefing series.
(See news story above about their better health
site)
This guide by the Institute of Community
Cohesion and the Department of Health is intended to aid health workers and NHS
trusts to contribute to community cohesion in the communities in which they
operate and to examine how community cohesion can impact on health, wellbeing
and health inequalities.
Forthcoming Events:
July:
The theme of this conference is
‘Interpreting in a Changing Landscape’. The aim is to explore
political, legal, human rights, trans-national, economic, socio-cultural, and
sociolinguistic aspects of public service/community interpreting.
Contact Us: we
welcome your input
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Formerly
known as the Specialist Library for Ethnicity and Health