Government and Management

Running Head: GOVERNMENT AND MANAGEMENT
Government and Management
Name
Institution

GOVERNMENT AND MANAGEMENT 2
Government and Management
Introduction
The purpose of the paper is to examine obesity as a health problem among Maori people
in NZ, the responsibility of central government in dealing with health disparities for Maori, prior
government strategies on obesity, recommendations to target the inequality among Maori people
in New Zealand. In spite of decades of in print reports plus peer-reviewed papers that describe
wellbeing inequalities for Maori, considerable disparities endure. The unequal status of Maori
health emanates from a combination of factors, which include poorer socioeconomic status; the
effect of discrimination; plus racism that contributes to the growing incidence of obesity. Also,
there is a greater degree of behavioural risk factors to obesity among the Maori, like smoking; as
well as a lower right of entry to or efficiency of some healthcare facilities (Allen, Allen, Hogarth
& Marmot, 2013).
Review a specific health related issue where Māori have been shown to experience poorer
health outcomes using both national and local health statistics to outline the broader
context of the issue.
The recent increases in obesity, both internationally and in NZ pose a significant threat to
public health. Obesity is distributed unevenly among populace groups in a way that there is
critical gender, ethnic, as well as socioeconomic status in obesity. Whilst the cause of obesity is
recognized to be an inequity of calorie use, the factors leading to this huge scale populace
intensity energy are multidimensional. Obesity is linked to many diseases that include
cardiovascular, type 2 diabetes, depression, gout, as well as many cancers. NZ has a very

GOVERNMENT AND MANAGEMENT 3
elevated prevalence of obesity. Maori face an unequal health burden linked to elevated rates of
obesity plus overweight. The 2008/09 New Zealand Adult Nutrition Survey that comprised 1,040
Maori respondents established that about 50% of all Maori persons had obesity (BMI>30 kg/m2)
(Shackleton et al., 2018).
According to Shackleton et al (2018), demographic inequalities in the incidence of
obesity reported in kids are obvious globally. In NZ, 1 in 3 kids is overweight or obese by the
moment they begin school, with ethnic differences even at a younger age. Particularly, about
twice as several Maori children are grouped as overweight (20%) as contrasted to Europeans
(12.7%). The Maori are remarkably overrepresented amongst the most economically
disadvantaged individuals that contribute to the disparities. For instance, 22.4% of children in
quintile (20% residing in socio-economically deprived regions) are obese compared with merely
9.7% in quintile 1 (Shackleton et al., 2018).
The New Zealand Medical Association study found that obesity and its connected
complications were potentially the biggest public health risk in NZ among the Maori. The
findings established the risk to the Maori should be a concern to doctors. Additionally, the New
Zealand Health Survey 2014/15 demonstrated that 11 percent of kids aged between 2-14 years
were overweight (Ministry of Health, 2015). The findings of the survey found that Maori
children were 1.3 times probable to watch 2 hours of TV daily compared with non-Maori
children. Correspondingly, children residing in disadvantaged quintile of families were 1.5 times
more probable to watch TV for over 2 hours daily as compared to children residing in the least
underprivileged quintile of households (Ministry of Health, 2015). World Health Organization
(2016) reports that the latest of childhood (2-14 years) obese is 33 percent with being

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considerably greater amongst Maori (44percent) while Pacific (55 percent) in NZ, 28% in
Europe and 27% in Asia among children (WHO, 2016).
Critically examine the role of central government in addressing health inequities for Māori.
You should include knowledge of Governance and Management and the role of Māori in
health service planning.
The Ministry of Health plays a crucial function in addressing inequalities among the Maori
through the implementation of policies and practices. The following are different strategies based
on governance by the New Zealand government:
 Primary Healthcare Strategy: The strategy is not a novel approach in NZ. It is well
understood that the NZ primary healthcare policy for many decades has been influenced
by the need to attain the following goals: (a) to develop a national health insurance entity
that involve the provision of general practitioner(GP) services at zero or very low client
fees on a common basis, (b) to form an organization in which an amplified percentage of
general practitioners is persuaded to position in rural regions, (c) to boost the percentage
of primary healthcare services to cater for poor clients, and (d) to reduce the full cost of
healthcare offered by general practitioners. The previous policies were on partly
successful in reducing inequalities through the above policies. Thus, the new Primary
Health Strategy that was released in 2001, in contrast, put more stress on equity. The
strategy is designed to lower inequalities are to guarantee accessible and appropriate care
services for people from lower socioeconomic status, for Maori (Glover et al., 2019).