Ethnic inequalities in the use of health services for common mental disorders in England.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study is to investigate whether minority ethnic people were less likely to receive treatment for mental health problems than the white population were, controlling for symptom severity.


METHODS
We analysed data from 23,917 participants in the 1993, 2000 and 2007 National Psychiatric Morbidity Surveys. Survey response rates were 79, 69 and 57 %, respectively. The revised Clinical Interview Schedule was used to adjust for symptom severity.


RESULTS
Black people were less likely to be taking antidepressants than their white counterparts were (Odds ratio 0.4; 95 % confidence interval 0.2-0.9) after controlling for symptom severity. After controlling for symptom severity and socioeconomic status, people from black (0.7; 0.5-0.97) and South Asian (0.5; 0.3-0.8) ethnic groups were less likely to have contacted a GP about their mental health in the last year.


CONCLUSIONS
Interventions to reduce these inequalities are needed to ensure that NHS health care is delivered fairly according to need to all ethnic groups.
Department of Mental Health Sciences (Bloomsbury Campus), UCL, 67-73 Riding House Street, 2nd Floor, Charles Bell House, London, W1W 7EJ, UK. c.cooper@ucl.ac.uk
Claudia
C
Cooper
Nicola
N
Spiers
Gill
G
Livingston
Rachel
R
Jenkins
Howard
H
Meltzer
Terry
T
Brugha
Sally
S
McManus
Scott
S
Weich
Paul
P
Bebbington
D000328:Adult; D000928:Antidepressive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004739:England / Q000453:epidemiology; D016021:Epidemiologic Studies; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D054625:Healthcare Disparities / Q000208:ethnology*; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000592:standards; D012923:Social Class
D000928:Antidepressive Agents