Scottish survey of diabetes services for minority ethnic groups.
BACKGROUND
In the UK, all ethnic minority groups have higher rates of diabetes than the general population. Although there have been a number of projects to assess diabetic care amongst minority ethnic groups in the United Kingdom, little is known about the extent to which the needs of ethnic minority groups are actually met by the National Health Service (NHS) Scotland. Therefore we conducted this study to understand of the current situation for diabetes care available to minority ethnic groups in Scotland.


METHODS
We conducted this cross-sectional study in all health boards in Scotland. A questionnaire was designed based on expert comments. It was completed by Local Health Care Cooperatives (LHCC) managers, chairs, diabetes specialist nurses and public health practitioners.


RESULTS
57 of questionnaires were returned (response rate = 69.5%). Of these LHCCs, 71% responded that diabetes was part of their LHCC plan. However 69% answered that ethnic group was not recorded by community services and GPs, and 80% of LHCCs did not monitor trends of complications of diabetes by ethnic group.


CONCLUSIONS
Improvement is needed in quality, completeness, and availability of minority ethnic group data for diabetes at a national level, particularly if NHS Primary Care Organisations are to be responsible for providing diabetes care as laid out in the Scottish Diabetes Framework.
Baradaran
Hamid R
HR
Public Health and Health Policy Section, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8RZ, UK. baradaran@iums.ac.ir
Jamieson
Joan
J
Gardee
Rafik
R
Knill-Jones
Robin P
RP
D001509:Bed Occupancy; D003153:Community Health Services / Q000592:standards; D019058:Community Networks / Q000592:standards; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D003625:Data Collection; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005194:Family Practice / Q000592:standards; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006293:Health Promotion; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008913:Minority Groups / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012606:Scotland; D013222:State Medicine / Q000592:standards*; D014175:Translating