Issue

Vol 132 No 1506: 29 November 2019

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Issue Summary

Viewpoint

SUMMARY

Equity by 2030: achieving equity in survival for Māori cancer patients

Jason Gurney, Shelley Campbell, Chris Jackson, Diana Sarfati

Māori diagnosed with cancer are more likely to die—and to die sooner—than non-Māori with cancer. New Zealand stands at the junction of a crucial philosophical choice: whether, in good conscience, to accept the existence of this inequity for our indigenous population, or to do whatever we need to do to close the gap. In this article, we talk about a new goal to achieve equity in cancer survival for Maori by 2030, give some recommendations for how we can achieve this goal and then talk about some of its likely criticisms.

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SUMMARY

Taking BMI off the table

Lucy Carey

All four-year-olds in New Zealand are offered a B4 School Check, which is a health and development check that aims to identify and address any concerns before children start school. As part of this, children have their body mass index (BMI) calculated based off their height and weight and the parents are then told whether their child is underweight, normal weight, overweight or obese according to their BMI. But BMI has been shown to be inaccurate in scientific studies, and is particularly inaccurate for Pasifika, Māori and Asian children. Plus, recent research shows that telling parents their child is in the overweight or obese BMI category may actually cause the child to gain proportionally more weight over time, even if they were not really overweight to begin with. This paper calls for BMI to be removed from the B4 School Check and instead every family talked to about the healthy behaviours that prevent and combat obesity—adequate sleep, cooking at home, eating together as a family, etc.

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SUMMARY

New Zealand Minimum dataset for a standard transthoracic echocardiogram

Kerryanne Johnson, Helen Walsh, Alex Sasse, Mark Davis, Belinda Buckley, Sally Greaves, Andrew To

This paper outlines the recommended images and measurements that are obtained during a cardiac ultrasound scan and aims therefore to promote standardisation across New Zealand. Furthermore, it recommends how to maintain quality within individual departments and how these investigations should be reported.

Article

SUMMARY

Surgeon-performed ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration of thyroid nodules is cost effective and efficient: evaluation of thyroid nodule assessment in a provincial New Zealand hospital

Michael Reeves, Rajeshbhai Patel, Christopher Harmston

This study shows that ultrasound assessment of thyroid nodules results in lower costs than if it is perfomed by a radiologist. There is also improved timeliness of care.

Article

SUMMARY

Outcomes of patients with ST elevation myocardial infarction in the era of second-generation drug eluting stents; five-year follow-up

Mohammed Alawami, Matthew Sadler, Chethan Kasargod, Timothy Watson, Mark Webster, Peter Ruygrok

Heart attacks remain a big killer despite our best efforts in reducing the death rates and fast medical treatment. New coronary stents show good results after a few years. Missing out on medications after a heart attack can result in serious complications and early death. Smoking after a heart attack can block off the stent and cause further heart attacks and death.

Article

SUMMARY

The employment gap: the relationship between medical student career choices and the future needs of the New Zealand medical workforce

Sam Seleq, Emmanuel Jo, Phillippa Poole, Tim Wilkinson, Fiona Hyland, Joy Rudland, Antonia Verstappen, Warwick Bagg

This paper aims to compare New Zealand medical students’ graduate intentions with the health workforce requirements in 2028, where medical graduates are anticipated to have completed training. At graduation, half of medical students were undecided on a career pathway. We found that the career intentions of medical students who had decided on a vocational pathway did not align with workforce requirements, with the main gap existing in general practice. The key limitation is the assumption that medical students career decisions and workforce requirements remain constant.

Article

SUMMARY

Electronic cigarette online marketing by New Zealand vendors

Niveditha Gurram, George Thomson, Nick Wilson, Janet Hoek

New Zealand urgently needs effective regulation that prevents the seductive marketing of vape products to young people. Few of New Zealand vape marketing websites, or their easily accessible Face-book or Twitter accounts, had health or addiction warnings. Two of the most popular websites had over 170 fruit/candy flavoured vape refills.

Article

SUMMARY

Influential factors in patient uptake of influenza vaccination during pregnancy; a survey-based audit in a tertiary hospital setting

Kristin Andre, Vesko Gavrilov, Sarah Graham, Simon M Scheck, Anita Chandler, Katie Hunter, Rebecca Crabbe, Daisy Wildash, Paul Canning, Sam Lepine

Influenza is a serious and potentially fatal condition that more severely affects pregnant women. Influenza vaccination during pregnancy is reliable, safe and provides benefit to the infant after birth. The most common reason in this study against receiving vaccination was found to be due to a lack of information given to pregnant women.

Book Review