Vol 134 No 1534: 30 April 2021

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Issue Summary

Article

SUMMARY

Predictors of medicinal cannabis users’ willingness to utilise a new prescription Medicinal Cannabis Scheme in New Zealand

Marta Rychert, Chris Wilkins, Karl Parker, Thomas Graydon-Guy

The online research survey of 3,634 medicinal cannabis users found majority (66%) were interested in transitioning to the new prescription Medicinal Cannabis Scheme (yet to be fully implemented). Medicinal-cannabis users with higher incomes, who are younger and who administered cannabis via smoking were more likely to express intention to use the scheme. Conversely, medicinal-cannabis users who identified as Māori and those who grew their own cannabis were less likely to intend to engage with the new prescription scheme. The lower intended engagement with the Medicinal Cannabis Scheme by Māori, lower income groups and those who home-grow cannabis may reflect their perceptions of the Medical Cannabis Scheme as restrictive and expensive. As more products become approved under the scheme, engagement with those groups of medicinal cannabis users will be important.

Viewpoint

SUMMARY

Official Information Act investigation of the Ministry of Health’s process to assess the Southern District Health Board’s readiness to join the National Bowel Screening Programme in 2018

Philip Bagshaw, Paula Goodman, Brian Cox

The Ministry of Health (MoH) gave permission for the Southern DHB (SDHB) to start doing bowel cancer screening. But the process used by the MoH is seriously flawed and should be immediately revised before the suitability of other DHB to join the screening programme is assessed. This investigation was done using Official Information Act (OIA) requests for data. This was met with delays and obfuscated by the MoH and only completed when intervention by the ombudsman was anticipated. The OIA Act needs urgent revision in order to achieve its objectives of providing the public and the media with transparency on the functioning of public agencies.

Article

SUMMARY

Methoxyflurane toxicity: historical determination and lessons for modern patient and occupational exposure

Serah J Allison, Paul D Docherty, Dirk Pons, J Geoffrey Chase

Anaesthesia is the medical process of temporarily ensuring unconsciousness for a patient, for surgery or other medical procedures. Analgesia is the medical term for ‘pain relief’. This paper starts by investigating historical anaesthetic use (high doses used to create the state of unconsciousness), and then proceeds to discuss the relevance of that historical research in considering the safety of modern analgesic use (lower doses used to relieve pain and sometimes also to cause a small amount of sedation/relaxation without causing unconsciousness).

Article

SUMMARY

The outcomes of patients with newly diagnosed neovascular age-related macular degeneration in Palmerston North

Aaron Yap, Adeline Kho, John Ah-Chan

The Palmerston North Eye Department has employed innovative strategies to effectively treat the growing number of patients with wet macular degeneration. The information systems in place provide insight into the time it takes for patients with newly diagnosed wet macular degeneration to access sight-preserving treatment and their visual outcome. So far, it has shown that a good proportion of patients experience stabilisation and improvement of their vision on treatment. Furthermore, the time to access treatment has decreased over the past two years.

Article

SUMMARY

Comparison of physical activity patterns across large, medium and small urban areas and rural settings in the Otago Region, New Zealand

Brittany White, Enrique García Bengoechea, John C Spence, Kirsten J Coppell, Sandra Mandic

Less than half of Otago adolescents meet physical-activity guidelines. Higher proportion of males, those participating in school sports and using active transport to school met physical-activity guidelines compared to their counterparts. Overall, adolescents are less physically active on weekends compared to school days. Adolescents from large urban areas spent more time being stationary compared to their rural peers. Continuous encouragement of physical is needed for adolescents across urban and rural settings.

Viewpoint

SUMMARY

What does abortion law reform mean for primary care practitioners in New Zealand?

Emma Macfarlane, Michael Stitely, Helen Paterson

Introduction of the Abortion Legislation Act 2020 has significantly changed the way abortion care can be provided in New Zealand, with the potential to improve access, reduce inequities and transform the abortion experience for those people who choose to end their pregnancy. The primary care sector stands to be key players in the provision of first-trimester abortion care. However, the health sector is not yet ready to provide best practice abortion care within the new legislative framework, with issues relating to funding, training and access to medications yet to be resolved.

Article

SUMMARY

Demographic differences in the initiation and maintenance of statins in the first year post-ACS in New Zealand: a data linkage study (ANZACS-QI 57)

Aravindra Muniandy, Mildred Lee, Corina Grey, Katherine Ferrier, Andrew J Kerr

This study captured virtually all New Zealand patients discharged from hospital after a heart attack or unstable angina who had been considered appropriate for invasive heart treatments. A key pillar of management for these patients is ongoing cholesterol lowering with statin medication. We found that in the year after discharge only 60% of people received an optimal supply of daily statin medication. Māori and Pacific people were less likely to receive optimal medication than other ethnic groups. Suboptimal statin medication provision is likely to be a marker of less optimal medical management and of other healthcare more generally. We discuss the opportunities, both in hospital and in the community, to improve survival and quality of life by improving the use of these evidence-based prevention medications.

Article

SUMMARY

Parental use of physical punishment in a birth cohort

Geraldine FH McLeod, John Horwood, Joseph M Boden, Lianne J Woodward

In 2007, as part of wider initiatives to improve child health outcomes, the New Zealand Government introduced important anti-smacking legislation that prohibited the use of physical punishment with children. This analysis examines the extent to which the prevalence of child physical punishment by New Zealand parents may have changed over a 15-year period (2002–2017) spanning before and after this legislation. Findings showed a clear downward trend in the use of child physical punishment, with minor assaults reduced by almost a half (77% to 42%), and severe assaults by two-thirds (12% to 4%), between 2002 and 2017. Parents who were more likely to use physical punishment tended to be younger, caring for more children and in a violent partner relationship. A history of personal mental health problems and concurrent family socioeconomic disadvantage were also influential.

Editorial