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| Journal of the New Zealand Medical Association,
10-August-2012, Vol 125 No 1359
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This Issue in the Journal
National Breast Cancer Audit: overview of invasive
breast cancer in New Zealand
Corinne Ooi, Ian Campbell, James Kollias, Primali de Silva This paper provides an overview of women with breast cancer
in New Zealand. It compares results of patients who presented with a breast
symptom to their doctor and women who had breast cancer detected through the
screening program. It shows that New Zealand women are generally treated
appropriately according to accepted international guidelines.
The reasons for cancellation of urological surgery:
a retrospective analysis
Robert Lopez, Sharryn Jowitt, Stephen Mark Cancellations of elective surgery is costly and a wasted
opportunity. Measurement of causes of cancellations improve efficiently reduces
cancellations.
Screening for sexually transmitted infections in
pregnancy at Middlemore Hospital, 2009
Alec J Ekeroma, Leena Pandit, Cecilia Bartley, John M D Thompson Sexually transmitted infections can cause complications in
pregnancy and it is a best practice recommendation to screen for this in
pregnancy. Our study found that in 2009, only 64% of all 6795 women having
babies in Middlemore Hospital had screening. Of the women screened, 10% had an
infection and it was highest in Maori, Pacific and young women. Our study
stresses the importance of improving and monitoring screening rates and
practice.
Unintended pregnancy and therapeutic abortion in the
postpartum period. Is an opportunity to intervene being
missed?
Karen Joseph, Anna Whitehead After giving birth a woman’s fertility can return
within a few weeks even if she is breastfeeding. If she does not wish another
pregnancy immediately then a range of contraceptive options can prevent this.
Due to the unique way that maternity care is funded in New Zealand (the lead
maternity carer or LMC system) women can, and should be, offered contraceptive
advice and prescription by their LMC (usually a midwife) free of charge. Despite
having this provision in the LMC contract there are a number of women who are
not being provided with adequate contraception after they give birth; and
subsequently conceiving an unwanted pregnancy and seeking an abortion while
their previous child is still less than six months old. There are a number of
reasons for this, and it is hoped that by identifying them it may be possible to
reduce the rate of unintended pregnancy in this group of women.
SIDS prevention: 3000 lives saved but we can do
better ((viewpoint article))
Edwin A Mitchell, Peter S Blair Mortality from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) has
decreased substantially from the late 1980s. This has been attributed to the
change in infant sleep position initially from prone to side and then to
predominantly supine. We calculate that this has saved over 3000 lives. However,
we argue that we could save more infant lives, if more focus was given to the
risks observed from parents sleeping in the same bed as their babies.
The effect of ethnic prioritisation on ethnic health
analysis: a research note ((viewpoint article))
Robert Didham, Paul Callister Ethnicity is an important variable in studies of health
inequalities in New Zealand. Yet there are on-going concerns about the nature,
quality and use of ethnic data. In 2004, Statistics New Zealand recommended that
researchers and policy makers no longer use the system of ethnic prioritisation,
a system originally designed to assign people with multiple ethnic responses to
one ethnic category. The prioritisation system treated Maori responses as top
priority, which means that information for people of both Maori and Pacific (or
European) ethnicities remained correctly included in Maori data but was lost to
the information on Pacific (or European) communities. While across a range of
disciplines researchers have shifted to using either total ethnic counts or
single and combination counts, many health researchers continue to use ethnic
prioritisation. Census data show that when using prioritisation there are
significant losses to Pacific, Asian and European groups, especially for young
people. Losses are especially high for New Zealand born people in all age
groups. Health researchers need to consider very carefully the costs and
benefits of using prioritised data. Based on the census data we suggest the
costs, in terms of loss of information and possible biases in findings, outweigh
any benefits.
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