Which ethnic groups have the poorest health?

This report examines differences in the health of ethnic groups in Scotland and uses census health data to identify variations between groups. The analysis employs age-standardised rates to compare people of similar age, which avoids the often misleading direct comparisons between populations with very different age structures.


4. Structure of the Report

This report covers both the 'health problem or disability' and the 'general health' census questions set out above. Since the health of women and men varies considerably within some ethnic groups, this analysis presents results by gender separately to draw out these differences.

Gender is a well-established determinant of health outcomes. Many health conditions and risk behaviours, such as physical activity and overweight/obesity, follow different patterns by gender. Mental health problems affect more women than men. Also, gender-based violence is a major public health and equalities issue.

Section 5.1 of the 'Analysis' section covers responses to the 'health problem or disability' question, firstly presenting results for the age-standardised data for each gender. It then shows the rates of 'health problem or disability' for the five different age bands and for each gender separately. The final chart in the section presents the age group with the highest rate of 'health problem or disability' - the 65 or over group - comparing the rates for women and men across all of the ethnic groups.

In the second section (5.2) this analysis is repeated for those who have responded that they have 'poor general health'.

Contact

Email: Jon Hunter

Back to top