HC Deb 04 December 2001 vol 376 cc172-3W
Mrs. Helen Clark

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment his Department has made of the increased risk of strokes among members of (a) Asian and (b) African-Caribbean ethnic groups; and what plans he has to commission further research. [16691]

Jacqui Smith

The 1999 Health Survey for England commissioned by the Department investigated the health of minority ethnic groups. This found that after adjusting for age, rates of stroke among black Caribbean men were over two-thirds higher than in the general population. Indian men also had higher rates than the general population. Among women, Chines women had low rates of stroke, while all other groups did not differ significantly from the general population. Details of the survey can be found at: http//www.official-documents.co.uk/document/doh/ survey99/houses-00.htm.

The Department has funded a number of literature reviews on ethnicity and health, carried out by the national health service Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD), University of York. One of the reviews looked at stroke in south Asian and African-Caribbean groups. This concluded that south Asian and Afro-Caribbean populations experience significantly raised rates of cardiovascular disease. In particular south Asian groups are at higher risk of coronary heart disease, and AfroCaribbeans are at greater risk of stroke. The details of these reviews can be found on the CRD website at: http://wWw. york.ac.uk/inst/crd/welcome.htm.

The Department is currently funding a study entitled `The South London Stroke Register: The Incidence, Outcome and Ethnic differences of aetiological subtypes of stroke'. This study will compare incidence of stroke between ethnic groups and compare survival, recurrence and functional status between subtypes and ethnic groups.

The Department has no specific plans to commission further research in this area, but stroke will continue to be considered as one of the priorities within the developing research and development strategy that supports the National Service Framework for Older People.