Skip to main content

Main menu

  • HOME
  • ONLINE FIRST
  • CURRENT ISSUE
  • ALL ISSUES
  • AUTHORS & REVIEWERS
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • BJGP LIFE
  • MORE
    • About BJGP
    • Conference
    • Advertising
    • eLetters
    • Alerts
    • Video
    • Audio
    • Librarian information
    • Resilience
    • COVID-19 Clinical Solutions
  • RCGP
    • BJGP for RCGP members
    • BJGP Open
    • RCGP eLearning
    • InnovAIT Journal
    • Jobs and careers

User menu

  • Subscriptions
  • Alerts
  • Log in

Search

  • Advanced search
British Journal of General Practice
Intended for Healthcare Professionals
  • RCGP
    • BJGP for RCGP members
    • BJGP Open
    • RCGP eLearning
    • InnovAIT Journal
    • Jobs and careers
  • Subscriptions
  • Alerts
  • Log in
  • Follow bjgp on Twitter
  • Visit bjgp on Facebook
  • Blog
  • Listen to BJGP podcast
  • Subscribe BJGP on YouTube
Intended for Healthcare Professionals
British Journal of General Practice

Advanced Search

  • HOME
  • ONLINE FIRST
  • CURRENT ISSUE
  • ALL ISSUES
  • AUTHORS & REVIEWERS
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • BJGP LIFE
  • MORE
    • About BJGP
    • Conference
    • Advertising
    • eLetters
    • Alerts
    • Video
    • Audio
    • Librarian information
    • Resilience
    • COVID-19 Clinical Solutions
Letters

Interpretation of ethnicity-specific data: increased risk versus increased utilisation

Alizah Ali, Fariha Hameed, Bharath Nagaraj and Aayush Visaria
British Journal of General Practice 2021; 71 (712): 495. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp21X717461
Alizah Ali
Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia. Email:
Roles: MD Student Researcher
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: aiali@msm.edu
Fariha Hameed
McGovern Medical School, Houston, Texas.
Roles: MD Student Researcher
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Bharath Nagaraj
Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, New Jersey; North American Disease Intervention, New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Roles: MD Student Researcher
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Aayush Visaria
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey; North American Disease Intervention, New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Roles: Postdoctoral Research Fellow
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Info
  • eLetters
  • PDF
Loading

It was with great pleasure we read the article by Robson et al titled ‘NHS Health Checks: an observational study of equity and outcomes 2009–2017’.1 We would like to offer additional contributions regarding explanations for the findings and differences between ethnic groups. It is difficult to ascertain whether ethnic disparities in incidence of disease between attendees and non-attendees are due to underlying higher risk of disease in these groups or the result of the NHS Health Check. It is well established that Black and South Asian patients have increased risk of hypertension and diabetes compared with White patients, and that ethnicity-specific body mass index (BMI) cutoffs should be utilised. It would be important to understand the risk of incident disease in attendees versus non-attendees within each ethnic group.

Interestingly, in a recent 2021 Lancet article, study authors found that adjusted incidence of type 2 diabetes occurred at far lower BMI in South Asians (BMI of 23.9) and Black Caribbeans (BMI of 26.0) compared with White patients with BMI of 30.0.2 Additionally, at comparable BMIs, Bangladeshis had the highest risk of type 2 diabetes, followed by Pakistanis and Indians. This is in line with the ethnic differences in NHS Health Check attendance rates, potentially offering an explanation for South Asians’ high attendance rates.

Lastly, Eastwood et al, in a June 2021 article assessing UK ethnic differences in statin initiation, found that time to initiation of statins was longest for South Asians, followed by Black patients.3 They also found that South Asians and Black patients were significantly less likely to initiate statins compared with European patients.3 This disparity in the overall primary care setting may overestimate the ethnic differences seen in attendees versus non-attendees. Overall, we believe the authors of this paper make a strong case regarding the low uptake and effectiveness of the NHS Health Checks and that more targeted, culturally sensitive cost-effective approaches should be considered. Further studies should keep in mind the different comorbid risk factors as well as changing national guidelines and ethnicity-specific guidance that may influence findings.

  • © British Journal of General Practice 2021

REFERENCES

  1. 1.↵
    1. Robson J,
    2. Garriga C,
    3. Coupland C,
    4. Hippisley-Cox J
    (2021) NHS Health Checks: an observational study of equity and outcomes 2009–2017. Br J Gen Pract, DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2020.1021.
  2. 2.↵
    1. Caleyachetty R,
    2. Barber TM,
    3. Mohammed NI,
    4. et al.
    (2021) Ethnicity-specific BMI cutoffs for obesity based on type 2 diabetes risk in England: a population-based cohort study. Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol 9, 7, 419–426.
    OpenUrlCrossRef
  3. 3.↵
    1. Eastwood SV,
    2. Mathur R,
    3. Sattar N,
    4. et al.
    (2021) Ethnic differences in guideline-indicated statin initiation for people with type 2 diabetes in UK primary care, 2006–2019: a cohort study. PLoS Med 18, 6, e1003672.
    OpenUrl
Back to top
Previous ArticleNext Article

In this issue

British Journal of General Practice: 71 (712)
British Journal of General Practice
Vol. 71, Issue 712
November 2021
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author
Download PDF
Article Alerts
Or,
sign in or create an account with your email address
Email Article

Thank you for recommending British Journal of General Practice.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person to whom you are recommending the page knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Interpretation of ethnicity-specific data: increased risk versus increased utilisation
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from British Journal of General Practice
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from British Journal of General Practice.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Interpretation of ethnicity-specific data: increased risk versus increased utilisation
Alizah Ali, Fariha Hameed, Bharath Nagaraj, Aayush Visaria
British Journal of General Practice 2021; 71 (712): 495. DOI: 10.3399/bjgp21X717461

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero

Share
Interpretation of ethnicity-specific data: increased risk versus increased utilisation
Alizah Ali, Fariha Hameed, Bharath Nagaraj, Aayush Visaria
British Journal of General Practice 2021; 71 (712): 495. DOI: 10.3399/bjgp21X717461
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One
  • Mendeley logo Mendeley

Jump to section

  • Top
  • Article
    • REFERENCES
  • Info
  • eLetters
  • PDF

More in this TOC Section

  • GPs’ understanding of the wider workforce in primary care
  • 2020 vision? A retrospective study of time-bound curative claims in British and Irish newspapers
  • Verschlimmbesserung
Show more Letters

Related Articles

Cited By...

Intended for Healthcare Professionals

BJGP Life

BJGP Open

 

@BJGPjournal's Likes on Twitter

 
 

British Journal of General Practice

NAVIGATE

  • Home
  • Current Issue
  • All Issues
  • Online First
  • Authors & reviewers

RCGP

  • BJGP for RCGP members
  • BJGP Open
  • RCGP eLearning
  • InnovAiT Journal
  • Jobs and careers

MY ACCOUNT

  • RCGP members' login
  • Subscriber login
  • Activate subscription
  • Terms and conditions

NEWS AND UPDATES

  • About BJGP
  • Alerts
  • RSS feeds
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

AUTHORS & REVIEWERS

  • Submit an article
  • Writing for BJGP: research
  • Writing for BJGP: other sections
  • BJGP editorial process & policies
  • BJGP ethical guidelines
  • Peer review for BJGP

CUSTOMER SERVICES

  • Advertising
  • Contact subscription agent
  • Copyright
  • Librarian information

CONTRIBUTE

  • BJGP Life
  • eLetters
  • Feedback

CONTACT US

BJGP Journal Office
RCGP
30 Euston Square
London NW1 2FB
Tel: +44 (0)20 3188 7400
Email: journal@rcgp.org.uk

British Journal of General Practice is an editorially-independent publication of the Royal College of General Practitioners
© 2022 British Journal of General Practice

Print ISSN: 0960-1643
Online ISSN: 1478-5242