Background: The population size of the elderly from ethnic minority groups in many developing countries is rapidly increasing. The authors perceived a paucity of publications in the geriatric psychiatry literature pertaining to ethnic minority elders.

Methods: A study examining the proportion of research publications pertaining to ethnic minority elders in two leading geriatric psychiatry journals, International Psychogeriatrics and International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, was undertaken.

Results: The main findings were: (1) overall only 7.6% of the publications examined ethnic minority elders; (2) only 5.1% of publications were exclusively of ethnic minority elderly groups; and, (3) only 2.5% of publications included ethnic minority elderly groups in their overall sample.

Conclusions: Findings from studies, such as epidemiological studies of risk factors for mental disorders in old age and randomized controlled studies of treatment interventions, which exclude ethnic minority elders, cannot be assumed to apply to these groups. Researchers, research institutions, funding organizations and policy-makers should acknowledge the rising numbers of ethnic minority elders and recognize the importance of using ethnic minority-specific research data in the planning of culturally sensitive services and mental health promotion programs.