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HEALTH WARNING
We are no longer updating our Covid-19 hub regularly. That includes this page. Click here for the latest.
Ethnic differences in Covid deaths are the result of economics
19/10/20 .
News
Official ONS research suggests that social and economic factors are to blame for the higher rates of Covid-19 deaths among Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities rather than medical ones.
The report published this month by the Office for National Statistics confirms far higher death rates among BAME communities. In England and Wales, males of Black African ethnic background had the highest death rate from Covid-19. It was 2.7 times higher than males of White ethnic background. Indeed, all ethnic minority groups other than Chinese had a higher rate than the White ethnic population for both males and females.
The report then took into account various other factors including geography, socio-economic characteristics and health status, including pre-existing conditions. This analysis concluded that higher prevalence of underlying conditions was not the cause. The ethnic differences in mortality were 'most strongly associated' with demographic and socio-economic factors, such as place of residence and occupational exposure.
Ben Humberstone, the deputy director of the ONS's Health and Life Events Division said:
Using more detailed ethnic group categories and adding measures of pre-existing health conditions from hospital data we have been able to build on previous analyses of ethnic disparities in Covid-19 mortality.
Today’s report confirms that when adjusting for age, rates of death involving Covid-19 remain greater for most ethnic minority groups, and most notably so for people of Black African, Black Caribbean, Bangladeshi and Pakistani ethnic background.
Our statistical modelling shows that a large proportion of the difference in the risk of Covid-19 mortality between ethnic groups can be explained by demographic, geographical and socioeconomic factors, such as where you live or the occupation you’re in. It also found that although specific pre-existing conditions place people at greater risk of Covid-19 mortality generally, it does not explain the remaining ethnic background differences in mortality.
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The Men’s Health Forum need your support It’s tough for men to ask for help but if you don’t ask when you need it, things generally only get worse. So we’re asking. In the UK, one man in five dies before the age of 65. If we had health policies and services that better reflected the needs of the whole population, it might not be like that. But it is. Policies and services and indeed men have been like this for a long time and they don’t change overnight just because we want them to. It’s true that the UK’s men don’t have it bad compared to some other groups. We’re not asking you to ‘feel sorry’ for men or put them first. We’re talking here about something more complicated, something that falls outside the traditional charity fund-raising model of ‘doing something for those less fortunate than ourselves’. That model raises money but it seldom changes much. We’re talking about changing the way we look at the world. There is nothing inevitable about premature male death. Services accessible to all, a population better informed. These would benefit everyone - rich and poor, young and old, male and female - and that’s what we’re campaigning for. We’re not asking you to look at images of pity, we’re just asking you to look around at the society you live in, at the men you know and at the families with sons, fathers and grandads missing. Here’s our fund-raising page - please chip in if you can.
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