European health surveys neglect minority groups, claims report
UK scientists have issued a report calling for more ethnic participation in European health studies in order to assess who benefits from research. The study, carried out by the University of Edinburgh, has revealed that Europe is trailing behind the US in recruiting people from ethnic minorities to take part in health studies. According to the study, the US, who has had a policy of including minority groups since 1993, is five times more likely to address ethnic and minority issues in its investigations than Europe. Professor Sheikh from the university of Edinburgh and lead author of the report entitled 'Comparison of reporting of ethnicity in US and European randomised controlled trials' suggested European governments should consider the U.S. model for encourage the inclusion of ethnic minority participants in research. According to the professor, 'if diverse communities are to benefit from the implementation of appropriately derived evidence then it is imperative that the ethnic diversity of populations under study are reflected in clinical trials. In the United States [...] the National Institutes of Health have instituted policy insisting that minority groups are represented in study samples unless there is a compelling reason not to do so. However, no comparable legislation exists in Europe'. Professor Sheik and his team noted, however, that even in the US, only two-fifth of trials published recently reported on the ethnicity of the participants. According to the scientists this could be due to the difficulty in identifying, enrolling and following up minority ethnic population in trials. Another explanation could be the argument that ethnicity reporting is only important in precise disease areas with known ethnic inequalities. 'Mechanisms and standards are needed to make sure minority ethnic communities are included in these trials' concluded Professor Aziz Sheikh.
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United Kingdom