Research Type: Religious, Ethnic & Cultural Affiliation

Census-based measures of self-reported health are widely used throughout the UK to assess need and as part of resource allocation formulae to distribute HPSS resources. It is important to know that such measures are not significantly biased by social or cultural factors. The proposed study aims to use the NILS-Mortality Linkage Study to examine the relationship between self-reported health in the 2001 census and subsequent mortality in the following five years to see if this relationship is modified because of the individual respondent’s religious affiliation, country of birth, or by levels of chronic unemployment in the area in which they live. These associations are strongly indicated by other research evidence. The results from the proposed research should help determine the direction and extent of any cultural and socio-economic factors influencing the reporting of SRH in Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland (NI) is a society spatially segregated along religious denomination lines. This study looks at some of the implications of this for population health in NI. In particular, the study examines (i) health outcomes associated with minority status for groups living within larger ‘other’ communities; and (ii) health outcomes associated with living as part of larger homogeneous communities which may have developed exclusionist social networks and mores – scenarios testable for both positive and negative health outcomes. More generally, while the immediate context for this study is NI, findings of this kind can have implications for the study of health in other minority populations. Indices of community composition will be derived quantifying the major religious denominations at area level.