Economic Determinants of Māori Health and Disparities

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Economic Determinants of Māori Health and Disparities

Date of publication: June 2004

Summary
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Summary
This is the second of two background papers produced for the Public Health Advisory Committee on the economic and socioeconomic determinants of health. This paper was commissioned to review evidence of the economic determinants of Māori health and disparities. Analysis is based on the Ministry of Health’s intervention framework to improve health and reduce inequalities.

An overview of the health trends shows that since the mid-1980s disparities between Māori and non-Māori have increased significantly as measured by a number of key health indicators: life expectancy, cancer mortality and cardiovascular rates. Research also shows a disturbing trend in the provision of health services, higher levels of Māori ill-health do not correspond with access to health services, eg, despite the high mortality from heart-disease among Māori and Pacific peoples, cardiac interventions are most frequently received by non- Māori, non-Pacific peoples.

To bring about lasting improvements in Māori health and eliminate disparities, the root causes of inequality must be addressed. In this model colonisation and racism underpin health inequalities in Aotearoa – as key forces driving both the differential distribution of economic determinants among Māori and non- Māori populations (distribution gaps) and the differential outcomes associated with socio-economic measures (outcome gaps). Racialisation inhabits class relations and is seen most starkly in its material outcomes – among both the privileged and the disadvantaged.

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This publication is available in Word and PDF format below:

Economic Determinants of Māori Health and Disparities (Word, 445 KB)
Economic Determinants of Māori Health and Disparities (PDF, 308 KB)

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