Ethnicity, equity and quality: lessons from New Zealand (Nga mātawaka, nga āhua tika me nga painga: nga ākoranga no Aotearoa)
- K M McPherson1,2,
- M Harwood1,
- H K McNaughton3
- 1Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, New Zealand
- 2School of Health Professions and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Southampton, UK
- 3Capital Coast Health, Wellington, Medical Research Institute of New Zealand
- Correspondence to: Dr K McPherson, Reader in Rehabilitation, School of Health Professions and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK; k.mcpherson{at}soton.ac.uk
Shorter life expectancy and poorer outcomes associated with ethnicity are important issues for many countries. Some approaches to this problem in New Zealand are described.
L ife expectancy for indigenous people in colonised countries is shorter than it should be. In New Zealand, Māori die on average 10 years younger than people of Anglo-European descent.1 The usual suspects of poverty and poor socioeconomic opportunities contribute to inequity, but failures in service organisation and delivery are part of the picture. New Zealand is not the only colonised nation where higher rates of illness and premature mortality exist, but it is a country making concerted efforts to address the disparity.
The starting point in identifying inequality in health outcomes is ensuring accuracy of data. New Zealand is a diverse country; the 2001 census indicates that 14.1% of the population are Māori, 6.2% are Pacific people, and 6.4% are Asian.2 Each of these groups is actually growing at a faster rate than pakeha (the white descendants of colonial settlers). However, until recently, documentation of ethnic origin in relation to health was not routinely collected. Even when ethnicity was …
