The Centre for Healthcare Innovation Research at the School of Health and Psychological Science, City, University of London welcomes Dr Brenda Hayanga to discuss her findings on ethnic inequalities in healthcare use and care quality among people with multiple long-term conditions (MLTCs) in the UK and on how these inequalities can be addressed, as part of the research seminar series.
Abstract
People with multiple long-term conditions (MLTCs) have poorer quality of life and a higher risk of death compared to people with single conditions or no long-term conditions.
There are studies that suggest that people from minoritised ethnic groups have a much higher risk of developing MLTCs and do so earlier than white people.
There are also studies that suggest that there are ethnic inequalities in healthcare use and care quality for people with MLTCs, however, the evidence is unclear.
In this three-year project, we set out to investigate ethnic inequalities in healthcare use and care quality among people with MLTCs living in the UK and how inequalities can be addressed.
Through two systematic reviews, we identified UK studies suggestive of ethnic inequalities in the prevalence of MLTCs, and in healthcare outcomes among people with MLTCs.
Quantitative analysis using data from Clinical Practice Research Datalink and the GP Patient Survey revealed evidence of ethnic inequalities in the prevalence of MLTCs across age groups, the impact, care quality and experience of primary care for people with MLTCs.
Our findings, and those of other studies, document the critical role of individual and area-level deprivation in attenuating ethnic inequities in health and healthcare outcomes.
However, that ethnic inequalities persist even after adjusting for key factors such as socioeconomic deprivation, suggests other processes are at play.
Future research is required to examine how upstream forces such as racism intersect with other powers of oppressions (e.g. sexism) to (re)produce ethnic inequalities in health.
About the speaker
Dr Brenda Hayanga is a Presidential Research Fellow at City’s School of Health and Psychological Sciences.
She is primarily interested in research that illuminates the ways in which individual-level processes intersect with social, historical and structural processes to cause inequities for people from minoritised ethnic groups.
Her most recent work has identified ethnic inequities in the prevalence, impact, care quality, and patient satisfaction for people with multiple long-term conditions.
She is currently examining the ways in which these inequalities can be addressed through co-production and participatory methods.
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