Operationalising the collection of ethnicity data in studies of the sociology of health and illness

In response to the burgeoning interest in ethnic health issues and related published research, a number of recent contributors have attempted to clari fy or systematise the usage of overarching terminology like 'ethnicity', 'r ace', 'culture', and 'racism', including the development of guidelines. How ever, the operational problems of how to collect ethnicity data in studies of the sociology of health and illness have not been satisfactorily address ed. This paper explores conceptual issues, notably, the meanings of ethnic identity and ethnic origin/ancestry; methodological approaches, including w hich dimensions to collect, multidimensional versus global measures, and ex clusive groups versus optional ethnicity; and also practical issues such as method of assignment. The approach calls for a stronger development of the theoretical understandings of ethnicity and work on how best ethnicity sho uld be conceptualised and measured in the different approaches to explainin g ethnic inequalities in health.