Self‐assessed health, economic status and ethnic origin

In the Bristol Black and Ethnic Minority Groups Health Survey more than 500 interviews were completed. The study made it possible to measure the health status of a range of groups. The interview schedule was translated into seven languages; the main groups interviewed were ‘Indian’, ‘Pakistani’ and ‘Black Caribbean’. Ethnic groups differ from each other quite markedly in socio‐economic profile, and within any given ethnic group there is differentiation. In the present article, we suggest that research reports about health and ethnicity may be misleading if they simply present inter‐group differences in health status, showing differences within and between groups. Socio‐economic variables influence self‐assessed health; in particular the unemployed and those with housing difficulties report significantly poorer health. The ‘Pakistani’ group have the poorest self‐assessed health and the poorest socio‐economic status. However, standardising for gender, age and material factors, differences in self‐assessed health between ethnic groups persist.