Different ethnic groups and health outcomes

See also the separate Diseases and different ethnic groups article.

Ethnic groups and health - is there a problem?

Black and minority ethnic groups in the UK have worse health outcomes in many areas than the general population. Evidence suggests that the poorer socio-economic position of some ethnic groups is the main driver of ethnic health inequalities. Government policies have tried to tackle health inequalities, which include ethnicity.

Understanding the ethnic mix of a population can improve healthcare delivery by helping to focus resources such as screening programmes, education and resource allocation.

A need to close the health gap for ethnic minorities is recognised by the Department of Health. Since the implementation of the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000 in April 2001, a statutory duty has been laid upon the NHS and other public service agencies to 'have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination' and to ensure that every new policy considers the implications for racial equality.

The NHS has, since April 1996, expected that all hospital trusts would record data relating to the ethnic origin of all 'admitted patients'.

Definitions of ethnic groups

Ethnicity results from many aspects of difference, including social and political influences, race, culture, religion, and nationality. People may identify themselves with more than one ethnic group, although to allow data to be collected and analysed on a large scale, ethnicity is often treated as a fixed characteristic.

Ethnicity in the UK is mainly self-defined, through the ten-yearly UK population census. Ethnic groups are usually classified by the methods used in the census, which asks people to indicate to which one of 16 ethnic groups they feel they belong. This immediately gives rise to a simplification of the true picture.

Ethnic groups in the UK according to the 2021 census data¹

• Over the last two decades England and Wales have become more ethnically diverse.

• 81.7% of the UK population were White (a fall from 92% in the 2001 census), 74.4% of whom identified as 'English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish, or British'. This is a continued drop from 2011 where 86% identified as White and 80.5% of that group identified as 'English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish, or British'.

• 91% of the population identified with at least one UK national identity (English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh).

• 9.3% of the population were Asian or Asian British (an increase from 7.5% in 2011).

• 2.5% identified as 'Black, Black British, Black Welsh, Caribbean, or African: African' (an increase from 1.8% in 2011).

• Across the English regions and Wales, London was the most ethnically diverse area and the North-East the least.

Effects of ethnicity on health outcomes²³

It is important to try to understand where and how ethnic differences impact on health outcome if health inequalities are to be reduced across the whole population. Ethnicity may impact on healthcare and access to it at many levels, acting through factors such as:

• Differences in service uptake.

• Communication issues.

• Culture and attitudes.

• Socio-economic factors.

• Differences in disease prevalence.

These differences affect access to services and act as barriers to good healthcare.

Differences in service uptake

• There is evidence of inequality of access to good care for ethnic minority groups - eg, Black and mixed ethnic groups are less likely to be prescribed primary prevention therapy for CVD and reach target thresholds.

• Rates of smoking cessation have been lower in Asian and Chinese groups than in White groups.

• There are some positive findings, such as reported equality of access in Primary Care.

Communication issues

Language barriers

A healthcare provider and patient need to be able to communicate as freely as possible. In the UK the vast majority of healthcare is delivered in the English language; amongst ethnic minority groups this may not be the first language or even a language of fluency. It is sometimes necessary to use interpreters. This can challenge the provision of the best care:

• Patient confidentiality can be compromised.

• The patient may be unwilling to speak on intimate matters.

• Engagement and empathy may be harder for health professionals to communicate and for patients to recognise.

• Interpretation or translation may not be faithful to the patient's account or meaning.

• Translation takes time and this may lead to superficial consulting.

• Translation using a telephone interpreter has a higher potential to be awkward and dysfunctional.

• Translation may cause embarrassment (for example, between parent and child) or problems may be caused if the patient and interpreter may be from different groups in a country with internal conflict.

• There is additional cost - the cost of the interpreter if a professional one used and the cost of the necessarily longer appointment.

Additional problems of communication include:

• Lack of interpreters and uncertainty over what language the patient speaks.

• Lack of a shared understanding of health issues and healthcare systems.

• Interpretation problems.

• Difference in understanding of health, disease and treatment.

• Different expectations.

• Patients unwilling to talk freely (eg, due to interpreter, due to fears of persecution).

• Lack of time for complex problems in the normal time frame of GP appointments.

• Extra time needed to consult with an interpreter.

It is the responsibility of healthcare professionals to ensure that consultations are understood, and we should do our best to use effective, professional translation services. It is good practice to compile a resource pack listing interpreter services which may be available locally.

Interpreter issues

• When interpretation is required, a double appointment (at least) should be made to allow sufficient time for the consultation.

• Ideally a face to face professional interpreter is booked in advance, arrives early and may, if the patient wishes, meet the patient briefly first. The length of time an interpreter needs to be booked ahead will depend in part on how common the language is and where, geographically, your surgery is placed. Interpreters are much more commonly now accessed by phone or online.

• A language identification card allows patients who can read to point to their language, enabling you to call an interpreter.⁴

• If a patient calls NHS111 and is able to state (in English) the name of the language they wish to use, a consultation in that language is available.

• Depending on the ethnic mix of your patient population there may be services provided by the council, local hospitals, refugee support groups, and other bodies. These services are often free if arranged by the patient themself.

• Patient advocates, rather than interpreters, are provided by some Primary Care organisations and refugee organisations. They support the patient although they may add their own views and suggestions to the consultation.

• Many patients wishing to consult in a language other than English will bring a family member, friend or advocate. Family members and friends may act as interpreters, which may be a practical solution and the preference of the patient. There are many disadvantages with this approach, including confidentiality issues, embarrassment, potential conflicts, and lack of good translating skills.

• You should avoid using children to interpret - this may embarrass the adults and give the child inappropriate responsibilities.

• When working with an interpreter:

  • Allow extra time.

  • Discuss how you will work together before you start.

  • Focus on and try to maintain eye contact with the patient, not the interpreter.

  • Emphasise confidentiality and address the patient as 'you' not 'he/she/they'.

  • Speak slowly and clearly 1-2 sentences at a time and watch for non-verbal cues.

Written language materials

• The NHS website gives details of resources that may be used to provide written information on health conditions in a variety of languages.⁵

• Online translation may help you translate documents although the accuracy cannot be guaranteed and colloquialisms may be a particular issue.

Patient expectations

• Be aware of the possible existence of culturally determined health beliefs - eg, around the significance of symptoms, or taboos around certain topics. Some patients may be reluctant to have blood taken because of views regarding its significance.

• Those who come from a country without a strong tradition of primary care may view any professional working in the community as inferior to any professional working in a hospital, regardless of experience.

• Be aware that for some patients there may be strong taboos regarding the gender of the health professional, particularly where examination is concerned. This may also apply to interpreters.

• An ideal chaperone speaks the patient's language as well as yours; however, this is not essential.

• Referral to the local Health Inclusion Team may be helpful. Their role is to educate excluded groups in their use of health services, enabling them to improve their access to care.

Practice management approaches

• Ensure that information leaflets are available to download in other languages where available.

• Provide clear signposting of the appointments system.

• Put up clear signage stating that racism will not be tolerated.

• Support staff dealing with stressed or angry patients and encourage tolerance on the day. Provide training for dealing with difficult patients.

• All asylum seekers are entitled to NHS treatment and GP registration. Make sure that staff are aware of this and avoid placing unnecessary barriers. The BMA website provides advice on entitlement to care for asylum seekers.

Culture and attitudes

An understanding of cultural differences and attitudes is needed for effective healthcare to be delivered appropriately. Examples of cultural and attitudinal differences which may affect health status and healthcare delivery include:

• The patient's expectations.

• The expression of symptoms which have cultural or linguistic influences.

• Family roles and relationship differences between cultures.

• Different attitudes to sex and marriage between cultures and religions.

• Different attitudes to clinical examination and what is acceptable to the patient.

• Patients' preferences for doctors or nurses of particular gender.

• Different significance attached to issues such as the gender of a baby or the presence of serious abnormality detected antenatally.

• Rules around death and the timing of burial or cremation.

• Cultural and/or religious views on organ transplantation and blood transfusion.

• Assumptions regarding lack of need for immunisation or antimalarial medication when visiting relatives in at-risk countries.

• Problems of culture and religion may make it difficult for patients to disclose matters as homosexuality, premarital sex, infidelity leading to disease or unplanned pregnancy, alcohol abuse or even depression.

Diet

Religious practices and beliefs can affect health in several ways:

• Muslims and Jews restrict or forbid the eating of certain foods.

• Hindus and Buddhists are usually vegetarian.

• Many religious groups have festivals involving fasting or restricted diet. Ramadan lasts for a month during which Muslims are forbidden from ingesting anything in daylight hours. Those who are ill are not expected to conform but they may choose to do so. If a Muslim patient needs to take medication, including injections, during the fast, they should do so; however, many patients with diabetes will wish to adapt their regime. Some groups are exempt from fasting including:

  • Children under the age of puberty, who may have a limited fast.

  • People who suffer from mental health.

  • Those who are elderly or unwell.

  • Travellers on journeys of more than about fifty miles.

  • Pregnant women and nursing mothers.

  • Women who are menstruating.

• A well-described cultural effect of ethnicity of diet is the association between Balti cooking, modest dress codes, and vitamin D deficiency, particularly in the lower sunlight areas of the Northern hemisphere.
  

Smoking ⁶

Smoking is the leading risk factor for disability-adjusted life-years:

• In 2022, 12.7% of all adults in the UK smoked cigarettes.

• Those who are White have the second highest rate of cigarette smoking, below the mixed ethnic group and above Asian, Black, and Chinese.

• Smoking has reduced from 2011 to 2022 in all ethnic groups.

Blood transfusion and organ transplantation

• Jehovah's Witnesses believe that it is unacceptable to receive blood products and do not accept organ transplantation.

• Parents may refuse a blood transfusion for a child. Sometimes the courts are involved and may override the parents' view in the child's best interests.

• No religion formally forbids donation or receipt of organs, although some are discouraged from accepting transplantation from deceased donors.⁷

Termination of pregnancy

Termination of pregnancy is unacceptable to many individuals, including some whose religious beliefs forbid it. This may be true even in extreme cases - eg, severe fetal malformation.

Where religious belief and the patient's best interests appear to be in conflict, health professionals should be very careful not to offer their own moral view but should give the patient accurate information to ensure that the decisions they take are properly informed.

Contraception

See also the separate Ethnocultural issues in contraception article.

The Roman Catholic Church opposes contraception, although it does allow use of the woman's menstrual cycle ('rhythm method') to permit sexual intercourse without great risk of conception ('natural family planning) .

Male circumcision

Male circumcision may be performed for religious, hygienic or medical reasons:

• Jewish boys are circumcised on the 8th day of life.

• There is variation in the times Muslim boys are usually circumcised.

• Circumcision is often practised as a coming of age ritual in adolescent boys in sub-Saharan Africa.

Operations are performed by the ministers of religion (surgical training is part of their theological studies). Some parents ask for a medical practitioner to perform the operation, but this must generally be done privately as the NHS does not usually fund circumcision, other than when it is needed for medical reasons.

Female genital mutilation (FGM)

• This is a procedure often involving clitoridectomy together with varying degrees of excision of the labia. It is often performed by practitioners with no degree of precision or surgical skill.

• The World Health Organization (WHO) defines it as 'all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons'.

• FGM is done for many reasons; there is no single religious basis.

• In some cultures a woman who has not undergone the procedure may be thought unmarriageable.

• Female genital cutting is a deeply rooted tradition that confers honour on a woman and her family, yet is also a traumatic experience that creates significant dermatological, gynaecological, obstetric and infectious disease complications. Complications include dyspareunia, dystocia and other psychological and physical problems.

• It is practised particularly in parts of Africa and the Middle East and there have been successful prosecutions of doctors performing such procedures in the UK.

• Healthcare professionals are mandated to report a child who may have had FGM or is at risk of FGM.⁸

Domestic violence

This affects women from all ethnic groups, and there is no evidence to suggest that women from some communities are specifically at more risk than others. However, the form of the abuse may vary and in some communities domestic violence may be perpetrated by extended family members. In some cultural groups it may include forced marriage, FGM or so-called honour killing, all of which have received significant publicity in the last few years.

Women from minority ethnic communities may be more isolated or may need to overcome religious and cultural pressures, particularly concerning the relative importance of self-assertion and protection against the community/family/perceived tradition, in order to seek help.

Socio-economic factors

Many ethnic minority groups experience higher rates of poverty than the White British ethnic group, in terms of income, unemployment and area deprivation. Much of the variation in self-reported health between and within ethnic minority groups can be explained by differences in socio-economic status.

Differences in disease prevalence between ethnic groups

Biological diversity produces different diseases and susceptibility to diseases. These are independent of the uptake of healthcare services and of sociocultural factors but will often make an impact on the need for health services. A great number of diseases have greater prevalence and impact in specific ethnic groups. For example:

• Diabetes is more prevalent amongst those whose are ethnically South Asian.

• Ethnicity may be a consideration in deciding the best treatment for hypertension.

• Sickle cell trait confers partial protection against the effects of malaria, so the sickle cell gene has been preserved in patients of West African ethnic origin, leading to significant levels of sickle cell gene carriage and sickle cell disease in this group.

• Marriage to family members (eg, first cousins) is more likely in certain ethnic groups where marriages are arranged. This leads to an increased prevalence of autosomal recessive diseases.

• Some diseases are less common in certain ethnic groups - eg, the prevalence of prostate cancer is lower in men of South Asian ethnicity than in the general population. It is, however, higher in patients of Afro-Caribbean origin.

Travel abroad

Both immigration and foreign travel, which for some people may mean returning to their parental home or birthplace, may introduce diseases - some exotic and some more mundane. For example:

• The UK sees over 2,000 cases of malaria a year. Many are travellers who failed to take adequate prophylactic medication. Malaria is the most common imported tropical disease to the UK. Encouraging migrant travellers visiting family and friends to take prophylactic medication should be a priority - any immunity to malaria accrued by growing up in a malarious country is rapidly lost on emigration and second-generation family members will have no immunity.

• Most cases of tuberculosis (TB) in are 'imported'. People born outside of the UK accounted for 81.9% of 2025 notifications in England.⁹

Health inequalities between ethnic groups

Most ethnic groups have poorer health than the White British group. There are wide variations in health between different ethnic classifications in England and Wales. Poor health is caused by a wide range of factors, including biological determinants (age, sex, hereditary factors) and wider social determinants such as education, social position, income, local environment and experiences of racism and racial discrimination. The social determinants of health are unequally distributed across ethnic groups, leading to unjust and preventable health inequalities.

Ethnic health inequalities can be reduced by improvements in the social status and living conditions of disadvantaged groups. To date, the main policy targets have focused on socio-economic class and area deprivation.

Health inequalities targets¹⁰

The Marmot Review examined health inequalities in England: Professor Sir Michael Marmot chaired an independent review to propose the most effective evidence-based strategies for reducing health inequalities in England. The final report, 'Fair Society Healthy Lives', was published in 2010. It found that:

• There is a pronounced socio-economic gradient in the prevalence of all major long-term conditions, in life expectancy and in disability-free life expectancy.

• Health inequalities result from social inequalities and to reduce health inequalities requires action across the social determinants of health.

• The NHS also has a pivotal contribution to make in reducing health inequalities through the way it commissions services and the way it provides healthcare.

• The conclusion of the Marmot Review was that reducing health inequalities would require action on six policy objectives:

  • Give every child the best start in life.

  • Enable all children, young people and adults to maximise their capabilities and have control over their lives.

  • Create fair employment and good work for all.

  • Ensure a healthy standard of living for all.

  • Create and develop healthy and sustainable places and communities.

  • Strengthen the role and impact of ill-health prevention.

Local and national action on health inequalities¹¹

In 2018, Public Health England (PHE) published a national resource providing evidence on the patterns and causes of ethnic health inequalities in England, assist in promoting an integrated approach to reducing health inequalities, and informing local and national action by PHE and other bodies.

The following evidence that health inequalities were related to ethnicity was presented:

• The pattern of socio-economic deprivation mirrors morbidity and mortality rates.

• Racism and discrimination is associated with poor physical and mental health in ethnic minorities.

• There is clear evidence that ethnic minority people reside disproportionately in areas of high deprivation with poor environmental conditions.

• Differentially poor access to primary and secondary preventative and curative healthcare that could help to reduce inequalities in the major causes of morbidity and mortality (eg, uptake of cancer screening and access to smoking cessation services) - Irish travellers and gypsies are particularly cited in this respect.

• Patterns are varied for different health-related practices (eg, smoking, alcohol consumption) across gender, generation and class, as well as ethnicity.

• Migrants into the UK tend to be healthier than those who do not migrate, but this advantage wears off over time and across generations.

It is hoped that an integrated approach to tackling these areas across the NHS will help to diminish the effect that these factors have on health inequalities. The document gives several examples (eg, Action on health literacy - engaging South Asian men with diabetes (Stoke on Trent), The Mayor's Fund for London) which are making a difference to the socio-economic and health status of ethnic minority communities.

Summary

In the UK, as in other countries, the growth of various ethnic communities and linguistic groups, each with its own cultural traits and health profiles, presents a complex challenge to healthcare practitioners and policy makers in terms of achieving equitable access. Ethnic differences in populations have important implications for doctors and others involved in the delivery of healthcare.

Doctors need to be aware of the influence of ethnicity, culture, and religion on the health of patients in the population they serve. In particular they should consider differences in disease prevalence, possible cultural influences on health, access to and uptake of health system, and the possible barriers to good care.

Dr Mary Lowth is an author or the original author of this leaflet.