Ministry of Health Library

Health Improvement and Innovation Digest

Issue 203 - 7 November 2019

Welcome to the fortnightly Health Improvement and Innovation Digest (formerly the HIIRC digest). The Digest has links to key evidence of interest, with access to new content arranged by topic.

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Have you heard about Grey Matter?

We'd like to introduce you to another newsletter that the Ministry of Health Library prepares.  The Grey Matter newsletter provides monthly access to a selection of recent NGO, Think Tank, and International Government reports related to health. Information is arranged by topic, allowing readers to quickly find their areas of interest.  If you'd like to subscribe to Grey Matter, email library@health.govt.nz.

Article access

For articles that aren't open access, contact your DHB library, or organisational or local library for assistance in accessing the full text. If your organisation has a subscription, you may be able to use the icon under full text links in PubMed to access the full article.

Health Equity (New Zealand)

Reported Māori consumer experiences of health systems and programs in qualitative research: a systematic review with meta-synthesis
Persistent inequities in health experiences and outcomes are observed for Māori compared to non-Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand. This systematic review, published in the International Journal for Equity in Health, conceptualised factors associated with Māori consumer experiences of health programs and services and characterise how the recommendations arising from qualitative research inform strategies to address inequities.

Barriers to equitable maternal health in Aotearoa New Zealand: an integrative review
The purpose of this review, published in the International Journal for Equity in Health, was to examine the literature for themes of underlying social contributors to inequity in maternal health outcomes and experiences in the high resource setting of Aotearoa New Zealand. These ‘causes of the causes’ were explored and compared with the international context to identify similarities and New Zealand-specific differences.

Indigenous voices on measuring and valuing health states
This article, published in AlterNative, explores the philosophical assumptions that underpin the way in which health states are valued. Economic measures of health are rarely made explicit and fail to capture the experiences of Indigenous peoples. Within a Kaupapa Māori theoretical paradigm, in-depth interviews were conducted with six Māori key informants who had cared for whānau (family) members through illness to give voice to dimensions of health and illness that Western economic measures of health fail to capture.

Quality Improvement (New Zealand)

Priorities for trauma quality improvement and registry use in Australia and New Zealand
The Australia New Zealand Trauma Registry enables the collection and analysis of standardised data about trauma patients and their care for quality improvement, injury prevention and benchmarking. Little is known, however, about the needs of providers and clinicians in relation to these data, or their views on trauma quality improvement priorities. As clinical experts, trauma clinicians should have input to these as ultimately their practice may be influenced by report findings. This paper, published in Injury, presents the perspectives of multidisciplinary trauma care professionals in Australia and New Zealand about the use of the Australia New Zealand Trauma Registry data and trauma quality improvement priorities.

Shorter Stays In Emergency Departments (International)

Challenges, consequences, and lessons for way–outs to emergencies at hospitals: a systematic review study
Emergency Department (ED) overcrowding adversely affects patients’ health, accessibility, and quality of healthcare systems for communities. Several studies have addressed this issue. This study, published in BMC Emergency Medicine, aimed to conduct a systematic review study concerning challenges, lessons and way outs of clinical emergencies at hospitals.

Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes (New Zealand)

A cost-effectiveness analysis of the Prediabetes Intervention Package (PIP) in primary care: a New Zealand pilot programme
The aim of this study, published in the New Zealand Medical Journal, was to estimate the cost-effectiveness of the Prediabetes Intervention Package (PIP), a multilevel primary care nurse-delivered prediabetes lifestyle intervention programme that was piloted in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. The goal of the intervention was weight loss and prevention of progression from prediabetes to type 2 diabetes.

Primary Health Care (International)

Interventions for involving older patients with multi‐morbidity in decision‐making during primary care consultations
Older patients with multiple health problems (multi‐morbidity) value being involved in decision‐making about their health care. However, they are less frequently involved than younger patients. To maximise quality of life, day‐to‐day function, and patient safety, older patients require support to identify unmet healthcare needs and to prioritise treatment options. The objective of this Cochrane Review was to assess the effects of interventions for older patients with multi‐morbidity aiming to involve them in decision‐making about their health care during primary care consultations.

Primary Mental Health (New Zealand)

Preventing Substance Use Among Indigenous Adolescents in the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand: a Systematic Review of the Literature
This systematic review, published in Prevention Science, assessed the current evidence base of substance use prevention programs for Indigenous adolescents in the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Increased Immunisation (International)

Previsit Screening for Parental Vaccine Hesitancy: A Cluster Randomized Trial
The objective of this study, published in Pediatrics, was to evaluate the effect of vaccine hesitancy screening on childhood vaccine uptake.

Better Help for smokers to Quit (International)

Community pharmacy personnel interventions for smoking cessation
Community pharmacists could provide effective smoking cessation treatment because they offer easy access to members of the community. They are well placed to provide both advice on the correct use of smoking cessation products and behavioural support to aid smoking cessation. The objective of this Cochrane Review was to assess the effectiveness of interventions delivered by community pharmacy personnel to assist people to stop smoking, with or without concurrent use of pharmacotherapy.

Exercise interventions for smoking cessation
Taking regular exercise, whether cardiovascular‐type exercise or resistance exercise, may help people to give up smoking, particularly by reducing cigarette withdrawal symptoms and cravings, and by helping to manage weight gain. The objective of this Cochrane Review was to determine the effectiveness of exercise‐based interventions alone, or combined with a smoking cessation programme, for achieving long‐term smoking cessation, compared with a smoking cessation intervention alone or other non‐exercise intervention.

Real‐time video counselling for smoking cessation
Real‐time video communication software such as Skype and FaceTime transmits live video and audio over the Internet, allowing counsellors to provide support to help people quit smoking. There are more than four billion Internet users worldwide, and Internet users can download free video communication software, rendering a video counselling approach both feasible and scalable for helping people to quit smoking. The objective of this Cochrane Review was to assess the effectiveness of real‐time video counselling delivered individually or to a group in increasing smoking cessation, quit attempts, intervention adherence, satisfaction and therapeutic alliance, and to provide an economic evaluation regarding real‐time video counselling.

Mobile phone text messaging and app‐based interventions for smoking cessation
Mobile phone‐based smoking cessation support (mCessation) offers the opportunity to provide behavioural support to those who cannot or do not want face‐to‐face support. In addition, mCessation can be automated and therefore provided affordably even in resource‐poor settings. The objective of this Cochrane Review was to determine whether mobile phone‐based smoking cessation interventions increase smoking cessation rates in people who smoke.

Oral Health (New Zealand)

Oral and dental health and health care for Māori with type 2 diabetes: A qualitative study
Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and periodontal disease are two highly prevalent, directly and independently associated long‐term conditions that disproportionately impact Indigenous Māori in New Zealand (NZ). Although poorly understood, a number of social and biological mechanisms connect these conditions. This qualitative study, published in Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology, explored experiences of T2DM and oral and dental health.

Key Ministry of Health Publications

Annual Report for the year ended 30 June 2019
This annual report highlights the Ministry of Health's achievements against thier statement of strategic intentions 2017/18-2020/21 and reports back on the activities undertaken to show the Ministry’s financial and non-financial performance. This report also demonstrates how the Ministry is progressing to deliver on its strategic priorities and shows progress made against targets and outcomes for the 2018/2019 financial year.

Wai 2575 Māori Health Trends Report
The Ministry of Health’s Māori Health Insights team has produced the Māori Health Trends Report, including several subject-specific modules, to inform the Wai 2575 Health Services and Outcomes Kaupapa Inquiry (Wai 2575). The report shows changes of Māori health over the years 1990–2015.

District Health Board Initiative

Telehealth Links Rural Hospitals to ICU
Northland DHB has developed a new mobile Telehealth Cart and linked all of its Rural Hospitals (Kaitaia, Bay of Islands, Dargaville and in 2020 Rawene) to the Intensive Care Unit at Whangarei Hospital. The carts allow remote patient assessment and management in the acute clinical setting, enhance assistance and decision making for acute retrieval requests from rural Hospitals, and provide Whangarei Hospital with an after-hours telestroke service.

The information available on or through this newsletter does not represent Ministry of Health policy. It is intended to provide general information to the health sector and the public, and is not intended to address specific circumstances of any particular individual or entity.