Maori Health

Tariana Turia laments the sad state of Maori Health after reading the Mortality and Demographic Data for 2005 (PDF here) and the report of the Perinatal and Maternal Mortality Review Committee (PDF here). She is right that they make grim reading for Maori, although it is not all doom and gloom. Although Maori mortality is still significantly higher than Pakeha mortality, Maori mortality is trending down at a faster rate than Pakeha mortality. We are making more inroads on Maori health and things are improving.

Because of a number of statistical factors (low numbers, alterations in ethnic divisions etc) you can’t say much more about those figures beyond their trends. Of course, the Herald was quick to use absolute figure for perinatal mortality in “One in 100 babies die before a month old – report“. Buried in the article is the important line:

“The rates were comparable to Australia and United Kingdom rates.”

Nothing to see here folks…

So before Tariana Turia rushes off on a wild goose chase demanding more and better health services for Maori, let me just say that our statistics show that are health services are working well for Maori. Overall mortality has very little to do with health services anyway. If you really want to measure health service efficiency you need to look at disease outcomes and complications, and, of course, waiting times.

If you want to change mortality, however, you need to address the root causes in the Maori people. These are all well known. Smoking, poor diet and low income are the chief drivers of poor Maori health statistics. Maori are genetically predisposed to Diabetes (they have a starvation survival gene that makes them resistant to insulin – it preserves the sugar available for your brain in starvation). When combined with our carbohydrate-obsessed western diet, this abnormality causes the 4.5 times greater incidence of diabetes seen in Maori people. It also causes Pacific islanders (and many Maori) to pick up weight rapidly. When you add the high prevalence of smoking to the deadly mix of obesity and diabetes you are about 20 times more likely to die early.

So if you really want to change Maori mortality, Ms. Turia, you need to help your people lift themselves out of their current poverty trap, put away their cigarettes, forgo fast-food franchises and start paying more attention to the quality of food they eat, rather than the quantity.

Good luck.

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