Disease variations in Asians in Leicester

Abstract

The epidemiological study of ethnic groups provides valuable information for physicians in a number of ways. First, it assists in the diagnostic approach in individual patients, especially for doctors unfamiliar with patients of a particular ethnic background. Second, it provides population data to assist in health care planning and provision for the present and future in districts where ethnic minorities are resident in significant numbers. Third, it may provide pointers for the study of pathogenic mechanisms. Fourth, changing epidemiology in migrant ethnic minorities may help to distinguish the degree of influence of genetic and environmental pathogenic factors. These studies are particularly valuable when minority populations are of a size which allows meaningful data to be collected on uncommon conditions. Furthermore the contrasts between migrant and indigenous populations are most clearly seen if migration has occurred over a restricted period. For these and other reasons the study of the migrant population from the Indian subcontinent (defined as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) which has settled in Leicester since the mid-1960s has proved particularly rewarding. This report summarizes the distinctive epidemiological features of these people now living in Leicester.