Health: Diabetes

Baroness Gardner of Parkes Excerpts

Wednesday 25th July 2012 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, I am aware of several local initiatives that are doing great work in accessing those in both black and minority-ethnic communities along the lines mentioned by the noble Lord. We have made important progress in strengthening our approach to promoting equality in health and social care and in tackling these inequalities that exist. That is especially important in relation to the Asian community. I am thinking in particular—the noble Lord mentioned the need to roll out initiatives—of the NHS Heath Check programme supported by the guidance on prevention issued by NICE and the Change4Life Programme, which now has a bespoke element to it targeted specifically at ethnic-minority communities.

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes]

My Lords, are separate statistics kept about ethnic groups? If not, would it not be an advantage to do so in terms of research, particularly as type 2 diabetes is very much dependent on diet and might be quite different in different sections of the community? What is the prevalence of diabetes in the ethnic community as opposed to other communities and what is the prevalence of type 1 diabetes as opposed to type 2 diabetes?

[Earl Howe]

My advice is that type 1 diabetes is not a particular issue in ethnic-minority communities. We are talking about type 2 diabetes, which is five times more common in black and ethnic-minority groups, six times more common in south Asian ethnic groups, and three times more common in areas of social deprivation than in the rest of the population. There are particular clinical risks associated with those from ethnic minority communities who have diabetes. Complications include particularly heart disease—south Asian people are 50% more likely than the general population to die prematurely from coronary heart disease—and the prevalence of stroke is also much higher in African, Caribbean and south Asian men.