Mark RD Johnson

• MA PhD DipHE
• Managing Director at De Montfort University

Plain English summary Involving families in health research gives children the opportunity to have more control over their healthcare and can help researchers/clinicians to better understand a child’s needs. However, involving children in research is still an uncommon practice despite international pressures to include children in decision making....

Tulsi (Holy basil, Ocimum tenuiflorum L., Lamiaceae), native to Asia, has become globalised as the cultural, cosmetic, and medicinal uses of the herb have been popularised. DNA barcoding, a molecular technique used to identify species based on short regions of DNA, can discriminate between different species and identify contaminants and adulterants...

Background To describe how using a combined approach of community-based participatory research and intervention mapping principles could inform the development of a tailored complex intervention to improve management of asthma for South Asian (SA) children; Management and Interventions for Asthma (MIA) study. Methods A qualitative study using inte...

A crucial element in any intercultural activity, particularly when the use of language is a crucial element of diagnosis, treatment (“talking therapies”) or ensuring concordance (“compliance”) with a treatment regime, or indeed, “informed consent”, is that the language used is understood equally on both sides of the dyadic transaction—or conversati...

Health care professionals (HCPs) have a pivotal role in optimizing patient care and should be familiar with complementary and alternative medicines. The aim of the study was to explore UK‐based HCP personal and professional opinions and experiences of herbal medicines (HMs). An online questionnaire was distributed via social media to recruit (n = 1...

Objective This paper draws on the data from the Management and Interventions for Asthma (MIA) study to explore the perceptions and experiences of asthma in British South Asian children using semi-structured interviews. A comparable cohort of White British children was recruited to identify whether any emerging themes were subject to variation betwe...

Background and aims Childhood asthma places a significant physical, financial, and psychological burden on patients, families, communities and the healthcare system. Current research indicates certain minority ethnic groups, especially South Asian children, encounter inequalities in asthma management and outcomes. Furthermore, children’s views and...

Background Over one million children receive treatment for asthma in the UK. South Asian children experience excess morbidity and higher rates of hospitalization than the White population. This study aimed to explore perceptions and experiences of asthma and asthma management in British South Asian and White British families, to identify barriers t...

Migrant South Asian communities in the UK have brought with them their own traditional forms of medicine, yet little is known about their current use of herbal medicines (HMs) in the UK. The aim of the study was to explore the origins, use and transmission of knowledge of traditional HMs used by diasporic South Asian communities in the UK. A resear...

Objectives: This paper presents the findings of a qualitative study exploring White and British Indian informal stroke carers’ experiences of caring, factors contributing to their stress, and strategies used to overcome stress. Design: A qualitative approach involving in-depth interviews was used to explore informal carers’ experiences of caring fo...

Background In the UK, people of South Asian origin with asthma experience excess morbidity, with hospitalisation rates three times those of the majority White population and evidence suggests that South Asian children with asthma are more likely to suffer uncontrolled symptoms and hospital admissions with acute asthma compared to White British chil...

DNA barcoding, a technique used to identify species based on short regions of DNA [1], can discriminate between different species, and identify contaminants and adulterants. Ocimum tenuiflorum L., commonly known as holy basil or tulsi, is native to Asia. Three types of tulsi are recognised in the Hindu culture (figure 1); Raam and Shyam (Krishna) a...

Background Communication may be an influential determinant of inequality of access to, engagement with and benefit from psychiatric services.AimsTo review the evidence on interventions designed to improve therapeutic communications between Black and minority ethnic patients and clinicians who provide care in psychiatric services.Method Systematic r...

Research addressing inequalities has focused predominantly on primary and community care; few initiatives relate to the pre-hospital environment. We aimed to identify in the literature barriers or facilitators experienced by patients from BME communities in accessing pre-hospital care and to explore the causes and consequences of any differences in...

Black and minority ethnic (BME) people using psychiatric services are at greater risk of non-engagement, dropout from care and not receiving evidence-based interventions than white British people. To identify effective interventions designed to improve therapeutic communications (TCs) for BME patients using psychiatric services in the UK, to identi...

Adaptation of health interventions has garnered international support across academic disciplines and among various health organizations. Through semi-structured interviews, we sought to explore and understand the perspectives of 26 health researchers and promoters located in the USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Norway, working with ethnic minor...

Tulsi is a plant native to tropical Asia with high cultural, medicinal and commercial value. There are three types of Tulsi recognised; Raam and Shyam (Krishna) – Ocimum tenuiflorum L.; and Vana – Ocimum gratissimum L. [1]. Species can be easily misidentified, leading to adulteration [2]. DNA barcoding can be used to identify the different types of...

Asthma is one of the most common chronic conditions with 1.1 million children experiencing asthma in their childhood. Much of the related morbidity is due to poor management, particularly the under use of preventative medicine. This was a collaborative participatory study aimed at identifying where along the asthma pathway resources needed to be fo...

Background: Asthma is one of the most common chronic childhood illnesses in the UK. South Asian children are more likely to suffer from their asthma and be admitted to hospital. While this inequality needs to be addressed, standard behaviour-change interventions are known to be less successful in minority ethnic groups. Evidence suggests a need to...

Carers of stroke survivors face significant burdens, and increased carer strain has negative implications for both the stroke survivor and the carer. There are limited data on carer strain in the British Indian UK population. In a prospective cohort of White British and British Indian stroke survivors and their carers, we report the incidence of ca...

Asthma is one of the commonest chronic conditions of childhood, placing a significant burden of care on families, communities and health services. British South Asian (Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi origin) children diagnosed with asthma are less likely to receive reliever and preventer medication prescriptions compared to their White British count...

South Asian children with asthma are less likely to receive prescriptions, more likely to suffer uncontrolled symptoms and acute asthma admissions compared with White British children. Understanding barriers are therefore vital in addressing health inequalities. We undertook a systematic review identifying explanatory factors for barriers and facil...

Increasing ethnic or cultural diversity in the population served by health-care services requires improved competence and updated provision. Both individual staff and institutions need to reflect on and prepare to meet new challenges. Three key elements-reflective self-awareness, knowledge of others, and skills in managing difference-must be develo...

Adapting behavior change interventions to meet the needs of racial and ethnic minority populations has the potential to enhance their effectiveness in the target populations. But because there is little guidance on how best to undertake these adaptations, work in this field has proceeded without any firm foundations. In this article, we present our...

South Asian children are more likely than others to suffer from their asthma and be admitted to hospital. The UK Public Health Outcomes Framework focuses on partnership across locally led systems to plan and deliver health-care services in the context of broader social determinants of health. The Management and Interventions for Asthma (MIA) projec...

Existing smoking cessation interventions tend to be under utilized by ethnic minority groups. We sought to identify smoking cessation interventions that have been adapted to meet the needs of African-, Chinese- and South Asian-origin populations, to increase understanding of the approaches used to promote behavior change, to assess their acceptabil...

There is a growing body of evidence supporting lifestyle interventions for the prevention of chronic disease. However, it is unclear to what extent these evidence-derived recommendations are applicable to ethnic minority populations. We sought to assess the degree of consideration of ethnicity in systematic reviews and guidelines for lifestyle inte...

Background: We aimed to validate the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS) among English speaking adults representing two of the minority ethnic groups living in the UK, self-identified as Chinese or Pakistani by background, in a mixed methods study. Methods: Quantitative data were collected in two cities in the West Midlands, UK. I...

WEMWBS scores across demographic groups for quantitative evaluation in Coventry.Table S1b. WEMWBS scores across demographic groups for quantitative evaluation in Birmingham. Table S2. Demographic description of focus group participants.

Background Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) groups in receipt of specialist mental health care have reported higher rates of detention under the mental health act, less use of psychological therapies, and more dissatisfaction. Although many explanations have been put forward to explain this, a failure of therapeutic communications may explain poorer...

Annex A1. Provisional search strategy for MEDLINE for capturing diverse ethnic groups. Annex2: preliminary searches on key words using PubMed.

The collection of ethnicity data has been demonstrated to be important in healthcare. However, despite recent efforts by the UK government, it remains incomplete and unvalidated. In order to be able to assess inequalities and target resources appropriately, it is essential to have complete and accurate data. This paper examines the reasons for the...

There is now a considerable body of evidence revealing that a number of ethnic minority groups in the UK and other economically developed countries experience disproportionate levels of morbidity and mortality compared with the majority white European-origin population. Across these countries, health-promoting approaches are increasingly viewed as...

It is recognised that the epidemiology of disease as well as ill-health manifestations in minority populations may be at variance from orthodox formulations generated through traditional research and as described in the western medical literature. The relevance of this lies in the need to devise strategies for optimising healthcare in minority grou...

This editorial offers an overview of mental health service provision across different languages and cultures in the UK. It is increasingly recognised that mental health service users with limited English proficiency are rendered doubly vulnerable by the combination of their illness and their language difficulties. Only recently has the importance o...

Ethnicity data collection has been proven to be important in health care but despite government initiatives remains incomplete and mostly un-validated in the UK. Accurate self-reported ethnicity data would enable experts to assess inequalities in health and access to services and help to ensure resources are targeted appropriately. The aim of this...

Focus group topic guide.

Researching ethnicity and health presents significant ethical, conceptual and methodological challenges. Although the potential contribution of research evidence to tackling ethnic inequalities in health is recognised, there are widespread concerns about the ethical and scientific rigour of much of this research, and its potential to do more harm t...

Background Some UK ethnic minority groups experience disproportionate levels of morbidity and mortality when compared with the majority White population. For these populations, access to and use of health promotion interventions may be limited. Adaptation of smoking cessation, physical activity and nutrition interventions of proven effectiveness fo...

Background Health promotion interventions have proved to be cost-effective strategies to reduce morbidity and mortality associated with smoking, physical inactivity and poor diet in the general population. Some ethnic minority groups are disproportionately affected by these lifestyle factors, and existing evidence suggests that adapting evidence-ba...

http://www.bmj.com/content/340/bmj.c684/rapid-responses

There is an identified need for the collection of ethnicity data in the healthcare setting. Accurate data on ethnicity are essential for informing policy makers, funders and public health experts about the incidence, prevalence and outcomes of specific conditions in population subgroups. There is emerging evidence that some ethnic groups are associ...

There is a paucity of research exploring the views of different cultural and ethnic groups about individuals with a visible difference. This research is a priority area given that issues of disfigurement, stigma and shame may be particularly bound to cultural and ethnic membership (Papadopoulos et al, 1999). This paper examines the attitudes of Sou...

Previous research has suggested low levels of drinking and high rates of abstinence amongst members of ethnic minority groups in Britain, but it was not clear that those conclusions applied equally to those born or educated in Britain. Using quota sampling and street interviewing methods, a sample of 1684 second or subsequent generation men and wom...

To assess the acceptability for use of information on osteomalacia for South Asian patients. Ten focus groups of South Asian persons speaking Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu (one male and one female group for each language) were used to evaluate the written (leaflets) and spoken information (CD) on osteomalacia for South Asian patients p...

Providers need to overcome their fear of dealing with people from different backgrounds

This paper reviews the literature on "public" perceptions of the practice of gamete (egg and sperm) donation in the treatment of infertility. Despite regular "consultation" exercises in the UK on the manner in which infertility treatments should be regulated, there is little sense of how a range of public groups respond to developments in this area...

This study evaluated the experiences of joint appointees within a school of nursing and midwifery. The nature of joint appointments has evolved, particularly since nurse education moved from the NHS into higher education institutions. Anecdotal evidence suggests that joint appointments are viewed as a bridge between clinical services and university...

The study set out to explore the perceptions and knowledge of drug use of the Bangladeshi origin population in Leicester through local Mosques and community and resource centers for recruiting subjects. A triangulated methodology was used for this research. A review of all available literature was carried out to establish if there was evidence of a...

Previous research in the UK has established the difficulty of recruiting and collecting information from individuals whose main language is spoken and does not have an agreed written form. The aims of this study were (i) to develop culturally competent translations of two questionnaires measuring diabetes self-care in languages with no written form...

This paper presents a knowledge review, undertaken to identify potential barriers affecting the recruitment of British South Asian people into the nursing profession. The review identified eleven studies, which explored attitudes and levels of knowledge towards nursing within the British South Asian population. Many of these studies, although provi...

Previous health research has often explicitly excluded individuals from minority ethnic backgrounds due to perceived cultural and communication difficulties, including studies where there might be language/literacy problems in obtaining informed consent. This study addressed these difficulties by developing audio-recorded methods of obtaining infor...

1. Summary The collection of data about 'race' or ethnic origin is in itself contentious, but an essential tool for statisticians concerned to combat inequality. This article reviews some of the history of the introduction of this policy tool and discusses associated problems and advantages alongside some examples of its application. Tools and guid...

Across the world, the prevalence of diabetes is increasing rapidly, and in the UK this is of particular concern in South Asian groups. Given the centrality of diabetes self-management to both policy and practice, it follows that research in this area, in particular to identify optimal ways of supporting those with diabetes in this regard, is requir...

Involuntary childlessness can be a devastating experience for many women and men. The true prevalence of infertility is difficult to determine. However, an estimated one in seven couples in the UK will seek help in conceiving a child at some point in their lives. New reproductive technologies have dramatically changed the prospects for many subfert...

Research and development in the field of sight loss and provision for visual impairment among black and minority ethnic groups in Britain is poorly developed. There are real and inexcusable inequalities in access to services for people from minority ethnic communities, and a distinct lack of knowledge about the issues involved among both sight-loss...

No Although the rationale for equal opportunities has been accepted within the UK public sector, there is little research into people’s aspirations and experiences of Positive Action (PA) as a means of achieving equality of opportunity during the whole employment cycle. A research project was carried out to explore meanings of race-, disability- an...

This paper presents key findings from the first major study of the provision of infertility services to South Asian communities in the UK. The research aimed to explore the social meanings of infertility and to examine the experiences of couples receiving fertility treatment. Focus groups with people from Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Indian communiti...

We have conducted a research review of visual impairment in ethnic minorities in the UK to make recommendations for future research strategies. In the UK ethnic minorities represent about 6% of the population, but locally they may form a third or more of certain city totals. The age profile is relatively young, so that there are fewer older people,...

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory condition that may lead to long-term disability. An understanding of the disease by health professionals in conjunction with early intervention improves clinical outcomes. Attention to ethnic variation adds an important dimension to this understanding.International research has demonstrated consid...