Health and healthcare in New Zealand

Running Head: Health and healthcare in New Zealand
Health and healthcare
in the context of
Aoteaora New
Zealand

Health and healthcare in New Zealand 1
Health and healthcare in the context of Aotearoa New
Zealand
The health status of the Indigenous population across the world differs according to their
historical, social and political state of affairs. The disparities between the Maoris and non-Maoris
in health are part of the history of New Zealand. Morbidity and mortality are important aspects
of health and healthcare of any country. Morbidity rate is an assessment of the frequency of an
event making it known or occurring in a defined population. (Ardagh, Richardson, Robinson,
Than, Gee, Henderson ... & Deely, 2012). It can be said that morbidity rate is a broad statistic
that related to the likelihood of developing or contracting a certain illness or event. In simple
words, it is a rate that shows the incidence diseases across the population in New Zealand per
year. The mortality rate is the number of deaths during a particular period of time among a
particular type or group of people. These two aspects are linked with the life expectancy of New
Zealand (Dahlen, Tracy, Tracy, Bisits, Brown & Thornton, 2014).
Differences in morbidity and mortality between Māori and non-Māori
males and females
The differences are present in morbidity and mortality between Māori and non-Māori males and
females. The gap stuck between the Māori and non-Māori males and females are narrow because
the health of the Māori has improvement from past four years but still, there is important
premature morbidity and mortality. It is the fact that the Māori experience an additional load of
morbidity and mortality throughout life, beginning with a higher infant mortality rate. The
mortality rates are decreasing which results in high life expectancy of New Zealand. This shows
that mortality rate is linked to the life expectancy of the people. The gap between the male and

Health and healthcare in New Zealand 2
female death rates is narrow; the death rates of a male are more as compared to the female, this
result in high life expectancy of the female in New Zealand. The females exceeded the life
expectancy at birth by 3.7 years in the year 2012-2014 (NZ Herald, 2017).
The life expectancy rates at birth are increasing for Māori and non-Māori, the statistics for the
year 2012-2014 is discussed below:-
 In the year 2012-2014, the life expectancy of the Māori males was 73.0 years which
shows 2.6 years hike than the 2005-07 and for Māori females, it was 77.1 years which
shows a hike of 2.0 years.
 Talking about the non-Māori males the life expectancy was 80.3 years which is
approximately 1.3 years up than previous years and for non-Māori females it is 83.9 years
which shows 0.9 years up (Ministry of Social Development, 2017).
The infant death rates of Māori and non-Māori varies, for the year 2012-2014 the Māori rate was
approximately 6 per 1000 infant (0.59 percent). The infant death rate of male is more as
compared to the female, 0.65 approximately is the rate of male infant death rate and for a female,
and it is 0.55 approximately. The infant death rate of non-Māori is low as compared to the Māori
because the infant of Māori gets affected by more of the diseases or the health facility provided
to the Māori is not appropriate which result in death (Satats NZ, 2015).
The gap in the middle of the Māori and non-Māori life expectancy has decreased from past few
years. In the year 2005-2007, a non-Māori people were likely to live 8.2 years more than the
Māori person, the gap between the Māori and the non-Māori has been fallen to 7.1 years (NZ
Herald, 2015).
Causes of Death

Health and healthcare in New Zealand 3
Māori and non-Māori male and female rate of Morbidity varies because both the community
faces different types of diseases. The causes of death are categorized in two different ways by
age-standardized morality rated and by years of life lost. The table shows the ranking of the
diseases that affect the Māori and non-Māori people.
Causes of death- Māori families and Non-Māori families
Maori Males Females
 Ischaemic heart diseases
 Lung cancer
 Suicide
 Diabetes
 Motor vehicle accidents
 Lung cancer
 Ischaemic heart diseases
 Chronic obstructive
pulmonary diseases
 Cerebrovascular disease-
stroke
 Diabetes
Non- Māori  Ischaemic heart disease
 Suicide
 Lung cancer
 Cerebrovascular disease-
stroke
 Motor vehicle accidents
 Ischaemic heart disease
 Breast cancer
 Cerebrovascular disease-
stroke
 Lung cancer
 Colorectal cancer
The above tables show that the ischaemic heart disease was leading cause of disease which leads
to the death of Maori males and both non-Māori males and females. Lung cancer was a leading