New analysis of health behaviours by ethnicity published by NHS Digital

New analysis of health behaviours and conditions across ethnic groups in England has been published by NHS Digital

Notes for editors

1. The Health Survey for England (HSE) is a series of annual surveys and the 2019 survey is the 29th. The surveys provide regular information that cannot be obtained from other sources about the public's health and associated factors. The HSE has been designed and carried out since 1994 by the Joint Health Surveys Unit of the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) and the Research Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London (UCL).

2. Participants within the HSE define their own ethnicity based on the 2011 ONS Census categories. These are the eleven groups used for analysis within this report: white British, white Irish, Other white backgrounds (including Gypsy or Irish Traveller), Mixed and multiple backgrounds (including white and black Caribbean, white and black African, white and Asian, and any other mixed or multiple backgrounds), Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Chinese, black African, black Caribbean, Other backgrounds (including any other Asian background, any other black background, Arab, and any other ethnic group).

3. The findings in this report are based on data combined from the HSE between 2011 and 2019 from adults aged 16 and over. The combined sample is 73,947 men and women. The majority (79%) classified themselves as white British. The profile of the sample by ethnicity, age, household income, area deprivation and whether they live in urban or rural areas is described in the report.

4. Age-standardisation takes into account differences in age profiles between groups and is important when comparing health across groups, because the prevalence of many health conditions and related behaviours vary markedly with age. The age profile of the different ethnic groups varies considerably, for example, some ethnic groups had higher proportions of young people. Age standardisation was carried out using the age groups 16-34, 35-54, 55 and over and done separately for men and women. Three broad age groups were used due to small numbers within some ethnic groups.

5. One unit of alcohol is 10ml by volume of pure alcohol.

6. BMI is a widely accepted measure of overweight and obesity that takes both height and weight into account. BMI is defined as weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared (kg/m2). This has been used as a measure of overweight and obesity in the HSE series. The phrase overweight or obese in the report is equivalent to "overweight, including obese in the tables.

7. Longstanding conditions are those lasting or expected to last 12 months or more, and include physical and mental health conditions. Conditions that reduce a person's ability to carry out day-to-day activities are described as limiting longstanding conditions. The most commonly reported longstanding health conditions include: musculoskeletal conditions, heart and circulatory conditions, endocrine and other metabolic conditions, including diabetes, respiratory conditions and mental, behavioural and neurodevelopmental conditions.

8. Wellbeing in the Health Survey for England (HSE) is measured using the 14-item Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (WEMWBS). This comprises 14 statements which cover different aspects of wellbeing expressed positively - for example, I've been feeling optimistic about the future'. Participants are asked to choose the answer that best describes their experience over the previous two weeks: None of the time', Rarely', Some of the time', Often', or All of the time' and this scale is scored from 1 to 5. The total Wellbeing score can range from 14 to 70.

9. Ethnic groups vary in their socio-economic and demographic composition. Individuals' health and related behaviours vary with their circumstances and across their life course. These differences may contribute to differences between ethnic groups in the health aspects covered by this report.