Menu
Under Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act government and public authorities must engage in practices that provide equality of opportunity in policy making and service delivery. In Northern Ireland we see the largest inequalities in what we call “hard to reach groups”. These include individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds, migrants, members of the Irish traveler or LGBTQ+ communities, children known to social services or those of differing religious beliefs. Research consistently shows that these individuals are more likely to have poor mental and physical health outcomes compared to their majority peers. However, it is also true that individuals who identify as members of these groups are less likely to be represented in population surveys, cohort studies or participate in clinical trials. Their relatively small numbers usually means their data, when captured, is lost when combined with others to avoid disclosure risk.
The Northern Ireland 2021 Census represents an exceptional opportunity to study the health and wellbeing of some of these groups. Within the 2021 Census, Question21, which is unique in the UK, allows people to report on their own health status, circumventing the difficulties of measures that depend on access to or use of health services; and it presents all the advantages of population-wide coverage, enabling robust estimates even for small sub-groups (while adjusting for other covariates) and a wide array of comparators.
Improving our understanding of the health and wellbeing of so called “hard to reach” groups, of who within them are most at risk of poor outcomes and what factors may attenuate those association will allow for effective targeting of policies and interventions.
