Background The increasing burden of injury is further exacerbated by the presence of ethnic disparities in emergency healthcare settings. This review aimed to describe the published literature reporting comparative mortality by ethnicity of adults presenting with injury to emergency healthcare in developed countries.

Methods Five electronic databases (CINAHL, MEDLINE, Cochrane, Scopus and PsycINFO) were searched for peer-reviewed papers published from January 2010 to May 2022. Studies reporting adult mortality compared by race and or ethnicity conducted in emergency healthcare settings (pre-hospital and or ambulance setting, trauma centre and hospital emergency department) in developed countries were included in this review.

Results 1172 articles were retrieved from database searches and after removing 234 duplicates, 938 unique articles were screened for eligibility and finally 31 articles were included in the review.

The most common type of injury presentations reported were blunt or nonpenetrating injuries followed by penetrating injuries and other non-specified injuries. Furthermore, three papers reported that people belonging to ethnic majority backgrounds experienced blunt or nonpenetrating trauma more than others (p<0.001).

Increased risk of mortality among people from ethnic minority backgrounds was observed in 80.6% (n=25) of the included papers. The adjusted risk of mortality following an injury in people belonging to ethnic minority backgrounds ranged from odds ratio (OR): 1.05; 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 0.84 - 1.31 to OR: 1.58; 95% CI: 1.28 –1.97.

Conclusions To our knowledge, this review provides the first insight into the mortality disparities faced by adults from ethnic minority backgrounds in developed nations, when they use emergency healthcare services for injuries. The data suggest that people from ethnic minorities have different patterns of injury and a higher risk of death. Further research is required to explain these differences and identify potential solutions.