The University of Leicester is leading a £2.1m large scale study into the additional risk of COVID-19 on Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) health workers.
The study is called UK-REACH: UK Research study into Ethnicity And COVID-19 outcomes in Healthcare workers. It has the support of the General Medical Council (GMC), with funding by the UK Research and Innovation and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
12 Month Study
Thirty thousand clinical, and essential non-clinical staff will be followed over 12 months to assess the impact of COVID-19 on their physical and mental health, behaviours and the level of risk from their jobs.
Public Health England data previously found 63% of healthcare workers who died with COVID-19 had BAME backgrounds.
It isn't yet known why South Asian and Black and African Caribbean communities are up to four times more likely to die from COVID-19.
England's Chief Medical Officer and Head of the NIHR Professor Chris Whitty commented: "With evidence showing that people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds are more severely affected by COVID-19, it is critical that we understand what factors are driving this risk to address them effectively."
Data from UK Biobank datasets will be made available to the study.
Stakeholders
Chief Investigator, Dr Manish Pareek, from the University of Leicester said in a news release: "We want this research to improve the lives of healthcare staff – to this end, we have a stakeholder group of major national organisations to research and publicise our findings."
Paul Buckley, GMC director of strategy and policy, said: "The GMC is keen to support this important work and will play a key role, along with other organisations including universities, medical royal colleges, NHS organisations and bodies representing doctors. We hope that participation by doctors, and other healthcare professionals, will help increase understanding of this issue and provide robust evidence to mitigate future risks to BAME healthcare staff."
