March 28, 2017
$6b ticket for respiratory disease
The Asthma and Respiratory Foundation estimates respiratory disease costs the country more than $6 billion a year, with Maori and Pasifika people bearing a disproportionate burden.
The foundation’s 2016 Impact of Respiratory Disease Update says over the past 15 years, hospitalisation rates have increased for bronchiectasis, childhood bronchiolitis and total respiratory disease, and now account for one in 10 overnight hospitalisations.
The most relentless and disturbing pattern was they way Pacific peoples’ and Maori respiratory health was poorest across all indicators, with Pasifika hospitalisation rates 3.1 times higher and Maori 2.4 times higher than for other ethnic groups.
Mortality rates are two times higher for both Maori and those living in the most deprived areas.
In November 2015, the Foundation launched the New Zealand Respiratory Strategy, a call to action for urgent recommendations to reduce the incidence and impact of respiratory disease, and eliminate equalities in respiratory health
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