Category: Research

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COVID-19 Media News Research

UCL team awarded £1.4m to assess Covid-19 infection risk in BAME communities

Image of faces in face coverings

A team led by Dr Robert Aldridge, from UCL (University College London), has been awarded £1.4m to recruit about 12,000 people from BAME groups to add to the 25,000 already in its “virus watch” study, previously funded by UKRI and NIHR. It will examine infection incidence among BAME communities and the contribution of factors such as overcrowding, migration status and occupation.

“One of the things that we’re concerned about in the migrant group in particular is barriers in access to healthcare and racism, structural discrimination, and whether that’s playing a factor,” said Aldridge. “Do they get a poorer level of care than both non-migrant minority ethnic groups and the white British groups?”

He said that the work would include examining the reduction in access to healthcare arising from the hostile environment.

The researchers said they would start publishing data and recommendations as soon as possible given the urgent need for action ahead of a feared second wave of the pandemic rather than wait until their studies were concluded.

Read the full news article here.

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COVID-19 Research

Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups in England are at increased risk of death from COVID-19

International and UK data suggest that Black, Asian and
Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups are at increased risk of infection and death from COVID-19. We aimed to explore the risk of death in minority ethnic groups in England using data reported by NHS England.

Read the full research article here

See the news coverage here

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Research

Healthcare resource utilisation and mortality outcomes in international migrants to the UK

An estimated 14.2% (9.34 million people) of people living in the UK in 2019 were international migrants. Despite this, there are no large-scale national studies of their healthcare resource utilisation and little is known about how migrants access and use healthcare services. One ongoing study of migration health in the UK, the Million Migrants study, links electronic health records (EHRs) from hospital-based data, national death records and Public Health England migrant and refugee data. However, the Million Migrants study cannot provide a complete picture of migration health resource utilisation as it lacks data on migrants from Europe and utilisation of primary care for all international migrants. Our study seeks to address this limitation by using primary care EHR data linked to hospital-based EHRs and national death records. 

You can read the full research paper here.

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COVID-19 Media News

How has the COVID pandemic highlighted ethnic minority health inequalities?

The ‘Coronavirus: The Whole Story’ podcast highlights UCL’s interdisciplinary expertise on Covid-19 – in this episode you can hear Rob Aldridge discuss his research that has highlighted the greatly increased risk in minority ethnic communities.

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COVID-19 News Research

Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups in England are at increased risk of death from COVID-19: indirect standardisation of NHS mortality data

We used NHS data of patients with a positive Covid-19 test, who died hospitals in England from March 1 to April 21 this year – which included data on age, region and ethnicity. Our findings support an urgent need to take action to reduce the risk of death from Covid-19 for BAME groups. Actions to reduce these inequities include ensuring an adequate income for everyone so that low paid and zero-hours contract workers can afford to follow social distancing recommendations, reducing occupational risks such as ensuring adequate PPE, reducing barriers to accessing healthcare and providing culturally and linguistically appropriate public health communications. Read the full research paper here.
NHS England COVID-19 deaths by ethnic group, adjusted and unadjusted by NHS region (error bars show 95% confidence intervals).

We used NHS data of patients with a positive Covid-19 test, who died hospitals in England from March 1 to April 21 this year – which included data on age, region and ethnicity.

Our findings support an urgent need to take action to reduce the risk of death from Covid-19 for BAME groups. Actions to reduce these inequities include ensuring an adequate income for everyone so that low paid and zero-hours contract workers can afford to follow social distancing recommendations, reducing occupational risks such as ensuring adequate PPE, reducing barriers to accessing healthcare and providing culturally and linguistically appropriate public health communications.

Read the full research paper here.

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COVID-19 Research

Global call to action for inclusion of migrants and refugees in the COVID-19 response

Lancet Migration calls for migrant and refugees to be urgently included in responses to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Read the full article here.

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Research

Million Migrants study of healthcare and mortality outcomes in non-EU migrants and refugees to England: Analysis protocol for a linked population-based cohort study of 1.5 million migrants

Conceptual framework for influences on migration and health adapted from UCL-Lancet Commission on Migration and Health

In 2017, 15.6% of the people living in England were born abroad, yet we have a limited understanding of their use of health services and subsequent health conditions. This linked population-based cohort study aims to describe the hospital-based healthcare and mortality outcomes of 1.5 million
non-European Union (EU) migrants and refugees in England.

Read more about this study here.

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Research

The negative health effects of hostile environment policies on migrants: A cross-sectional service evaluation of humanitarian healthcare provision in the UK

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Recent UK ‘hostile environment’ immigration policies, including obligatory charging and sharing of confidential data between NHS Digital and the Home Office, have created an atmosphere of fear and exposed already highly marginalised and vulnerable groups to significant health risks by increasing barriers to accessing NHS care. 

This is a cross-sectional observational study of patients accessing healthcare at Doctors of the World (DOTW) in the UK. DOTW is a humanitarian organisation, providing care to those excluded from NHS healthcare. 

Read the full research paper here.

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Research

Occupational health outcomes among international migrant workers: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Forest plot of Occupational accidents and injury of migrant workers.

Globally, there are more than 150 million international migrant workers—individuals who are employed outside of their country of origin—comprising the largest international migrant group. A substantial number of migrants work in hazardous and exploitative environments, where they might be at considerable risk of injury and ill health. However, little data on occupational health outcomes of migrant workers exist, with which to inform global policy making and delivery of health services.

For this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched Embase, MEDLINE, Ovid Global Health, and PsychINFO databases for primary research published between Jan 1, 2008, and Jan 24, 2018, reporting occupational health outcomes among international migrant workers (defined as individuals who are or have been employed outside their country of origin), without language or geographical restrictions.

Read the full research paper here.

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Research

Effects of non-health-targeted policies on migrant health: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Stack of paper records

Government policies can strongly influence migrants’ health. Using a Health in All Policies approach, we systematically reviewed evidence on the impact of public policies outside of the health-care system on migrant health.

Read the full research article here.