The principal scientific journal for the profession in New Zealand

Vol 136 No 1572: 24 March 2023

Ethnic inequities in health in Aotearoa New Zealand—an international embarrassment

Editorial
Open Access

Ethnic inequities in health in Aotearoa New Zealand—an international embarrassment

Socio-economic disadvantage is responsible for much of the ethnic inequities in health seen in Aotearoa New Zealand. Combined with poor access to healthcare, sub-standard quality of care provided, racism and systemic bias, these factors result in chronic inequities and poor health outcomes for Pasifika and Māori people.

Article
Open Access

Alcohol-related presentations to emergency departments on Crate Day in Waikato, New Zealand

Crate Day is of public health concern because of the potential alcohol-related harm due to an increase in alcohol consumption, and in a high-risk manner that is likely to be distributed inequitably across society.

Viewpoint
Open Access

Empagliflozin and dulaglutide: community awareness project promotes improved access to newly funded medications for Pacific patients with type 2 diabetes

Poorer health outcomes have persisted among Māori and Pacific people with type 2 diabetes for more than 20 years. In response to this, more effective and equitable management of type 2 diabetes in New Zealand has been urged by health professionals and health academics.

Viewpoint
Open Access

The need to nurture Aotearoa New Zealand’s healthcare workforce

Like many countries, Aotearoa New Zealand is in the midst of a health workforce crisis. Long-term staff shortages across health professions have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has significantly increased stressors experienced by the workforce, both here and globally.

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ARTICLE
Vol 136 No 1572: 24 March 2023

Impacts of the COVID-19 lockdown on self-reported mood and self-rated health of community-dwelling adults with chronic illness | OPEN ACCESS

Gary Cheung, Claudia Rivera-Rodriguez, Brigid Ryan, Adrian Martinez Ruiz, Etuini Ma’u, Ange Bissielo, Brigette Meehan, Vanessa Burholt

During the COVID-19 pandemic New Zealand implemented some of the strictest physical distancing restrictions in the world, including an initial national lockdown from 25 March 2020–27 April 2020.

ARTICLE
Vol 136 No 1572: 24 March 2023

Is success written in the stars? The effect of zodiac sign on the outcome of total knee arthroplasty

Christian JH Peacock, Irrum Afzal, Vipin Asopa, Nick D Clement, David H Sochart

It has been suggested that aspects of an individual’s personality and future can be predicated on their zodiac sign, and from the position of planets, moons and stars. Previous studies evaluating the influence of astrology have noted an association between the severity of myocardial infarction and the presence of the sun, as well as a correlation between the position of the moon (lunar phase) and post-surgical pain.

ARTICLE
Vol 136 No 1572: 24 March 2023

Alcohol-related presentations to emergency departments on Crate Day in Waikato, New Zealand

Ishani B Soysa, Alexander C Brebner, Dyfed Thomas, Elizabeth Becker

Crate Day is of public health concern because of the potential alcohol-related harm due to an increase in alcohol consumption, and in a high-risk manner that is likely to be distributed inequitably across society.

ARTICLE
Vol 136 No 1572: 24 March 2023

Colonic Investigation following acute diverticulitis in Northland, New Zealand

Josh Tiro, Olivia Lengyel, Matthew James McGuinness, Christopher Harmston

Diverticulitis is a common manifestation of diverticular disease, and one of the commonest reasons for general surgical hospital admission.

ARTICLE
Vol 136 No 1572: 24 March 2023

Treatment outcomes of adult acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in Auckland, New Zealand

Stephen Hong Chun Wong, Maryanne Offner, Rong Hu, Claire Hemmaway

Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is a neoplasm of immature lymphoid cells.

ARTICLE
Vol 136 No 1571: 10 March 2023

Percutaneous vertebroplasty: efficacy in the management of pain related to acute vertebral compression fractures

Ashreya Duvuru, Stewart Paul Hawkins

As New Zealand’s ageing population grows, the prevalence of osteoporosis and related complications grow with it. Vertebral body compression fractures (VCF) are the most common osteoporotic fracture, occurring in 20% of people over the age of 70 years.

ARTICLE
Vol 136 No 1571: 10 March 2023

Longitudinal trends in community antibiotic consumption in the Waitaha Canterbury Region of Aotearoa New Zealand over 10 years (2012–2021): an observational study

Nienke N Hagedoorn, Ibrahim Al-Busaidi, Paul Bridgford, Sharon J Gardiner, Tony Walls, Ben Hudson

In Aotearoa New Zealand, community care accounts for up to 95% of antibiotic dispensing. Compared to other high-income countries, dispensing rates in Aotearoa New Zealand were the fourth highest, exceeded only by Greece, Italy and Korea in 2019.

ARTICLE
Vol 136 No 1571: 10 March 2023

The incidence of symptomatic venous thromboembolism following orthopaedic surgery at Bay of Plenty District Health Board

Joshua Read, Andrew Vane, Dawson Muir, Frances Stringfellow

Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), collectively known as venous thromboembolism (VTE), are significant potential post-operative complications.

ARTICLE
Vol 136 No 1571: 10 March 2023

Pharmacologic therapy among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus admitted to the cardiology service

Evelyn Lesiawan, Thomas Seaton, Jocelyne Benatar, Jithendra B Somaratne

The advent of sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors has changed the landscape in the management of T2DM. These drugs reduce all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, non-fatal myocardial infarction and progression of kidney disease without the risk of hypoglycaemia.

ARTICLE
Vol 136 No 1571: 10 March 2023

Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM): use and views among patients with solid organ and haematological malignancies in Northland, New Zealand

Edmond Ang, Vincent Newton, Lisa Dawson

Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) is defined in New Zealand as an area of healthcare external to conventional biomedicine. CAM can be used to either supplement (complementary) or replace (alternative) conventional therapy.

EDITORIAL
Vol 136 No 1572: 24 March 2023

Ethnic inequities in health in Aotearoa New Zealand—an international embarrassment

Collin Tukuitonga

Socio-economic disadvantage is responsible for much of the ethnic inequities in health seen in Aotearoa New Zealand. Combined with poor access to healthcare, sub-standard quality of care provided, racism and systemic bias, these factors result in chronic inequities and poor health outcomes for Pasifika and Māori people.

EDITORIAL
Vol 136 No 1571: 10 March 2023

Protecting school communities from COVID-19 and other infectious disease outbreaks: the urgent need for healthy schools in Aotearoa New Zealand

Amanda Kvalsvig, Belinda Tuari-Toma, Carmen Timu-Parata, Julie Bennett, Claire Sinnema, Jennifer Summers, Cheryl Davies, Constanza Jackson, Andrew Dickson, Lucy Telfar Barnard, Michael G Baker

Aotearoa New Zealand’s Omicron outbreaks demonstrated that widespread COVID-19 transmission in schools is harmful to both health and education.

EDITORIAL
Vol 136 No 1570: 17 February 2023

Homeless in Aotearoa New Zealand—paradise lost

Frank Frizelle

More recently I have been forced to re-examine the issues that homeless people are living with and society’s reactions to them, after a group of homeless men and women moved onto a section I own in central Christchurch. For over 9 months the local council and police did a good job providing support for these people and were tolerant of their presence.

EDITORIAL
Vol 136 No 1568: 20 January 2023

Public health interventions: the elephant in the room of the health system crisis

Caroline Shaw, Christine Cleghorn

This increased demand for healthcare is being managed by a workforce experiencing illness itself, causing high levels of shortages. Long-standing health workforce shortages have been amplified by COVID-19, and burnout, exhaustion and distress amongst clinical staff are endemic and acute.

EDITORIAL
Vol 136 No 1569: 3 February 2023

Assessment of unmet secondary elective healthcare need—itself in need of acute care in Aotearoa New Zealand

Phil Bagshaw, John D Potter, Andrew Hornblow, Ben Hudson, Les Toop, M Gary Nicholls, Chris Frampton, Sue Bagshaw, Robin Gauld, Frank Frizelle

A central database that makes use of internationally standardised measures of unmet health need is vital for the development and implementation of health policy, despite the discomfort that arises when such a database inevitably exposes health system weaknesses and resource constraints.

EDITORIAL
Vol 135 No 1567: 16 December 2022

Whakairo: carving a values-led approach to understand and respond to the mental health and substance use of the New Zealand population

Helen Lockett, Cameron Lacey, Angela Jury, Talya Postelnik, Amanda Luckman, Richie Poulton

We (the authors) are proposing an innovative approach to defining what good epidemiological data is in the Aotearoa New Zealand context; how to collect it, and most importantly how it can be used to design and offer supports and services that respond to peoples’ needs.

EDITORIAL
Vol 135 No 1566: 2 December 2022

Doctor owned investigation and treatment facilities: a conflict of interest or a pragmatic way forward?

Peter Robertson

The New Zealand health system is implementing a significant reform agenda amidst continued pressure related to the COVID-19 pandemic. A feature of the response, as the system continues to work through the reform agenda, has been the use of capacity and capability across both public and private components of the sector.

VIEWPOINT
Vol 136 No 1572: 24 March 2023

Empagliflozin and dulaglutide: community awareness project promotes improved access to newly funded medications for Pacific patients with type 2 diabetes

Gerhard Sundborn, Fale Lesa, Graham King, Kate Vennell, Henry Kozak, Karen Pickering, John Baker

Poorer health outcomes have persisted among Māori and Pacific people with type 2 diabetes for more than 20 years. In response to this, more effective and equitable management of type 2 diabetes in New Zealand has been urged by health professionals and health academics.

VIEWPOINT
Vol 136 No 1572: 24 March 2023

The need to nurture Aotearoa New Zealand’s healthcare workforce

Elizabeth Fenton, Cervantée E K Wild, José G B Derraik, Cameron Grant, Yvonne Anderson

Like many countries, Aotearoa New Zealand is in the midst of a health workforce crisis. Long-term staff shortages across health professions have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has significantly increased stressors experienced by the workforce, both here and globally.

VIEWPOINT
Vol 136 No 1571: 10 March 2023

Cardiac complications of COVID-19 infection | OPEN ACCESS

Sharan Randhawa, Ammar J Alsamarrai, Simon Lee, Jithendra B Somaratne

New Zealand’s initial years of the pandemic were characterised by a low prevalence of COVID-19 compared to other developed nations, but the country has since witnessed discrete periods of widespread community transmission, the most recent of which was the February 2022 Omicron variant outbreak. As of November 2022, there have been almost two million recorded cases of COVID-19 infection in New Zealand, representing approximately 40% of the total population, of which there were 2,212 deaths.

VIEWPOINT
Vol 136 No 1570: 17 February 2023

Airborne transmission: a new paradigm with major implications for infection control and public health | OPEN ACCESS

Anna Stevenson, Joshua Freeman, Mark Jermy, Jason Chen

In early January 2020, news filtered through to the general public of a disease outbreak caused by a novel coronavirus centred around a live animal market in Wuhan, China. A media release from New Zealand’s Ministry of Health on 24 January 2020 noted the virus caused pneumonia.

VIEWPOINT
Vol 136 No 1568: 20 January 2023

Sleep-in to stay well: addressing school start times for the health and wellbeing of teens in Aotearoa

Charmaine Barber, Sarah Hetrick, Liza Edmonds, Rachael W Taylor, Mohamed Alansari, Leigh Signal, Jillian Haszard, Jacinta Oldehaver, Barbara Galland and members of the School Start Time Study Advisory Group

We need to talk about sleep and adolescent health in Aotearoa (New Zealand). Sleep is essential for survival as well as being vital for children’s health, wellbeing and development. It is well known that insufficient and poor-quality sleep is endemic in adolescents, to the detriment of their health and wellbeing, yet we have failed to prioritise the issue.

VIEWPOINT
Vol 136 No 1569: 3 February 2023

A case of purpura fulminans attributed to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole

Yassar Alamri, Ignatius Chua, Nicholas M Douglas

Purpura fulminans is a life-threatening condition in which there is extensive cutaneous haemorrhagic necrosis in the setting of disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC).

VIEWPOINT
Vol 135 No 1567: 16 December 2022

The past, present and future of liver cancer control for Māori

Sydney Clough, Tara Cleverley, Clarence Kerrison, Matire Harwood, Jonathan Koea, Jason K Gurney

Liver cancer is one of the top 10 most common cancers among New Zealand’s Indigenous Māori population, and one of the top 5 most common causes of Māori cancer death.

LETTER
Vol 136 No 1572: 24 March 2023

Consent for teaching—response to Rennie et al.

Ben Gray

I agree with Rennie et al.; patient autonomy is important. Central to this debate is the tension between the ideal, what is happening and what is possible.

LETTER
Vol 136 No 1570: 17 February 2023

Welcoming the Medical Council’s review of doctors and health-related commercial organisations: more is needed to ensure financial factors never influence patient care

Adrian Balasingam

In September 2022, the Medical Council of New Zealand released a consultation paper suggesting that referrals to a facility where a doctor has a financial interest should only occur where there is no suitable alternative that meets the patient’s needs. As independent radiologists, we strongly believe that financial factors should never influence decisions relating to patient care.

LETTER
Vol 136 No 1568: 20 January 2023

Reply to Iupati et al: paediatric palliative care

Brian Ensor, Sarah Clunie

Thank you to the authors for their survey of Hospice Care in Aotearoa New Zealand. It includes the question of whether there is a paediatric hospice in Aotearoa New Zealand. Although strictly speaking there is no paediatric-only hospice, Rainbow Place is a dedicated paediatric palliative care service, within Hospice Waikato, currently caring for about 40 children in the community.

LETTER
Vol 135 No 1567: 16 December 2022

Iodine-only supplements for breastfeeding women: a call to action in New Zealand

Ying Jin, Jane Coad, Sheila Skeaff, Cheryl Benn, Shao J Zhou, Louise Brough

Adequate iodine supply is required for the optimal production of the thyroid hormones, triiodothyronine and thyroxine, which are essential for the development of the central nervous system during the first 1,000 days of a child’s life.

LETTER
Vol 135 No 1567: 16 December 2022

Aotearoa New Zealand must learn how to vaccinate children most at risk of vaccine preventable diseases first

Cameron C Grant, Owen Sinclair, Teuila Percival

If you had a treasure that required protection against the deadly vaccine-preventable pneumococcal disease, and you had a choice of two vaccines, which one would you choose? One that cost more or one that was cheaper but provided protection against fewer pneumococcal serotypes?

LETTER
Vol 135 No 1566: 2 December 2022

Medical students and informed consent—response to “Consent for Teaching”

Sarah C Rennie, Lynley Anderson, Alan F Merry, Suzanne Pitama, Papaarangi Reid, Jeanne Snelling, Simon Walker, Tim Wilkinson, Warwick Bagg

We disagree with Dr Gray’s proposal that the consensus statement is flawed. Gray argues the consensus statement is couched in ethical terms that prioritise patient autonomy, which is inconsistent with the approach of balancing the quadruple aim of quality medical practice.

LETTER
Vol 135 No 1566: 2 December 2022

Novel use of technology

Gaenor Bell, Brad Peckler, Christine Coulter

I am a Trainee Intern (TI) doing a rotation in General Practice (GP) where unfortunately my GP supervisor came down with COVID-19. As she was not unwell with it, we decided that we would still see patients and her nurse and I would act as a surrogate.

BOOK REVIEW
Vol 135 No 1550: 25 February 2022

This pākehā life: an unsettled memoir

Kaaren Mathias

This pākehā life: an unsettled memoir is a candid memoir by Alison Jones, who currently is a Professor in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland in the school of Māori and Indigenous Education, Te Puna Wānanga.

BOOK REVIEW
Vol 134 No 1532: 26 March 2021

Perfection: The life and times of Sir William Manchester

Saxon Connor

I recently spent a weekend in Martinborough and as many people do spent some time browsing the local bookshop.

BOOK REVIEW
Vol 133 No 1527: 18 December 2020

From Southland to Surgery: A Journey around Values

Richard Acland

Professor John Morton has not only written an intriguing catalogue of the Christchurch surgical scene in the latter part of the 20th century, but has also provided a well-considered philosophy for medical care.

BOOK REVIEW
Vol 133 No 1521: 4 September 2020

My Life in Public Health

Frank Frizelle

In the time of Covid, some of the superheroes of the health sector are the public health physicians. This book outlines the active and varied personal and professional life of one New Zealand public health physician.

BOOK REVIEW
Vol 132 No 1489: 1 February 2019

Mind That Child; A Medical Memoir

Frank Frizelle

This a book that recounts the experience of the Auckland Starship’s paediatrician Dr Simon Rowley over his professional lifetime.

BOOK REVIEW
Vol 132 No 1488: 18 January 2019

The Art of Recovery: six personal journeys

Frank Frizelle

As an editor you receive books for review, which are sent to suitable people following an email agreement to review.

BOOK REVIEW
Vol 132 No 1488: 18 January 2019

Fat Off; the Right Way A clever and sustainable eating guide for weight loss and healthy living

Frank Frizelle

Paul Anderson is a New Zealander who trained in general surgery and works part-time in Australia and part-time in New Zealand.

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