Incidence of Hepatitis in BME groups using Onomap
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Assessing the incidence of Hepatitis in Black and Minority Ethnic groups living in Wales using 'Onomap', a name based ethnicity software package.
IRAS ID
210327
Contact name
Daniel Thomas
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Public Health Wales Research and Development team
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Communicable diseases disproportionally affect certain ethnic groups. The factors determining infection risks are complex and are usually social and behavioural, rather than biological. Minority ethnic groups often have higher rates of infectious diseases due to their links with countries where the prevalence of infectious disease is high. However, local transmission of infectious diseases may also cluster in ethnic groups, reflecting social mixing. For example, Black Caribbean communities continue to have a higher prevalence of gonorrhoea many decades after settling in the UK.
Understanding racial/ethnic variation in the incidence of infections in Wales is important to assist in the setting of priorities for communicable disease surveillance and control, for targeting interventions and the introduction of new services for vulnerable population groups. However, to do this requires information on the rates of infectious disease in specific ethnic groups. This is hampered by missing data on the racial/ethnic group of cases of infectious disease, with the exception of a few specific diseases such as HIV and tuberculosis.
'Onomap' is a name-based ethnicity classification software package, developed at University College London. The package comprises of over 1 million surnames and 500,000 forenames derived from public registries from over 185 ethnic groups. The software is used to classify a person into their most likely ethnic group based on their name.
We plan to run this software across routinely available surveillance data on cases of infectious disease diagnosed in Wales. Population census data will be used to calculate incidence rates by ethnic group. In the first instance, this would be carried out for hepatitis infections. If the approach is successful, we would seek funding for a larger study, which may include analysis of a wider range of infections, analysis of testing patterns, and a further, more detailed analysis of the relationship between infectious disease, ethnicity and deprivation.
REC name
West of Scotland REC 4
REC reference
16/WS/0189
Date of REC Opinion
20 Sep 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion