Ethnicity and health: a research review

This paper is part of a larger piece of research on the perceptions of health and health services by members of the black population in North and East London, funded by the SSRC. The paper concentrates on published research produced principally by the medical profession and which concerns the health of 'immigrants', 'Asians', 'Afro-Caribbeans', 'members of ethnic minorities' or 'black people' in Britain. In five sections, the paper focuses on the illnesses and diseases which have been most intensively investigated and documented by previous researchers, and attempts to uncover the biases and/or assumptions that have led to this concentration on a few topics and groups at the expense of others. An attempt is also made to consider the influence of some of the findings of 'race relations' research on the health of Britain's black and ethnic minority population.