Ministry of Health Library

Health Improvement and Innovation Digest

Issue 225 - 21 January 2021

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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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)

Engaging Pasifika: Connecting Culture and Care
This publication, authored by Le Va, explores their Engaging Pasifika cultural competency training programme. It is an evidence-informed programme that equips health and disability services to connect culture and care. The 2019- 2020 results show how the programme contributes to better health outcomes for Pasifika people.

Infant mortality inequities for Māori in New Zealand: a tale of three policies
This study, published in the International Journal for Equity in Health, explores the history of infant mortality inequities among Māori in New Zealand. This history provides a remarkable case study for understanding the shortcomings of policy which fails to consider the differential risks associated with disadvantaged groups.

Health Equity (International)

Language and Health Equity during COVID-19: Lessons and Opportunities
Racial and ethnic health inequities have been magnified during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Linguistic barriers are a recognized source of health inequities for ethnic minority communities whose health communication needs cannot be adequately met in the majority language. Emergency circumstances, such as respiratory distress and end-of-life care, carry elevated risk of medical error due to miscommunication and are increasingly common during the current pandemic. This article, published in the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, has identified three key opportunities to improve health equity for linguistic minority populations as a result of the COVID-19 public health crisis.

Cancer Services (New Zealand)

Reaching under‐screened/never‐screened indigenous peoples with human papilloma virus self‐testing: A community‐based cluster randomised controlled trial
Indigenous women in the high‐income countries of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and USA, have a higher incidence and mortality from cervical cancer than non‐Indigenous women. Increasing cervical screening coverage could ultimately decrease cervical cancer disparities. The aim of this study, published in the Australian & New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, was to increase cervical screening for under‐screened/never‐screened Māori women.

Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes (New Zealand)

Improved foot management of people with diabetes by primary healthcare nurses in Auckland, New Zealand
The aim of this study, published in the New Zealand Medical Journal, was to evaluate trends in foot examinations for people with diabetes by primary healthcare nurses between 2006–2008 and 2016 in Auckland, New Zealand.

Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes (International)

Social Determinants of Health and Diabetes: A Scientific Review
Introduction
This article, published in Diabetes Care, explores Social Determinants of Health and Diabetes. Decades of research have demonstrated that diabetes affects racial and ethnic minority and low-income adult populations in the U.S. disproportionately, with relatively intractable patterns seen in these populations’ higher risk of diabetes and rates of diabetes complications and mortality. With a health care shift toward greater emphasis on population health outcomes and value-based care, social determinants of health (SDOH) have risen to the forefront as essential intervention targets to achieve health equity.

Effectiveness of the Transformation Model, a model of care that integrates diabetes services across primary, secondary and community care: A retrospective study
The primary aim of this study, published in Diabetic Medicine, was to evaluate the effectiveness of a model integrating diabetes services across primary, secondary and community care (Transformation model). The secondary aim was to understand whether changes resulted from the model.

Providing culturally safe care to Indigenous people living with diabetes: Identifying barriers and enablers from different perspectives
In recent years, cultural safety has been proposed as a transformative approach to health care allowing improved consideration of Indigenous patient needs, expectations, rights and identities. This community‐based participatory study, published in Health Expectations, aimed to identify potential barriers and enablers to cultural safety in health care provided to Atikamekw living with diabetes in Québec, Canada.

Primary Health Care (New Zealand)

Repeat prescribing policy in New Zealand general practice: making it better
Repeat prescribing is common in New Zealand general practice. Research also suggests that repeat prescribing is a process prone to error. All New Zealand general practices have to comply with requirements to have a repeat prescribing policy, with the details of the policy to be designed by the practice. The aim of this study, published in the Journal of Primary Health Care, was to inform the development of practice policy, research was undertaken with experienced general practitioners to identify and mitigate risk in the process.

Pacific Fono: a community-based initiative to improve rheumatic fever service delivery for Pacific Peoples in South Auckland
Rheumatic fever inequitably affects Māori and Pacific children in New Zealand. School-based throat swabbing services, such as the South Auckland Mana Kidz programme, are a key element of rheumatic fever prevention interventions. The article, published in the Journal of Primary Health Care, discusses how Mana Kidz undertook an exploratory, community-based initiative to improve its service delivery for Pacific Peoples.

Primary Health Care (International)

The Role of Health Technologies in Multicomponent Primary Care Interventions: Systematic Review
Several countries around the world have implemented multicomponent interventions to enhance primary care, as a way of strengthening their health systems to cope with an aging chronically ill population and rising costs. Some of these efforts have included technology-based enhancements as one of the features to support the overall intervention, but their details and impacts have not been explored. This study, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, aimed to identify the role of digital/health technologies within wider multifeature interventions that are aimed at enhancing primary care, and to describe their aims and stakeholders, types of technologies used, and potential impacts.

Better Help for smokers to Quit (International)

Behavioural interventions for smoking cessation: an overview and network meta‐analysis
Smoking is a leading cause of disease and death worldwide. In people who smoke, quitting smoking can reverse much of the damage. Many people use behavioural interventions to help them quit smoking; these interventions can vary substantially in their content and effectiveness. The objective of this Cochrane Overview and Network Meta-analysis was to summarise the evidence from Cochrane Reviews that assessed the effect of behavioural interventions designed to support smoking cessation attempts and to conduct a network meta‐analysis to determine how modes of delivery; person delivering the intervention; and the nature, focus, and intensity of behavioural interventions for smoking cessation influence the likelihood of achieving abstinence six months after attempting to stop smoking; and whether the effects of behavioural interventions depend upon other characteristics, including population, setting, and the provision of pharmacotherapy.

Weight Management (New Zealand)

What affects programme engagement for Māori families? A qualitative study of a family‐based, multidisciplinary healthy lifestyle programme for children and adolescents
It is important that intervention programmes are accessible and acceptable for groups most affected by excess weight. This study, published in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, aimed to understand the barriers to and facilitators of engagement for Māori in a community‐based, assessment‐and‐intervention healthy lifestyle programme (Whānau Pakari).

Weight Management (International)

Promotion of Physical Activity in Older People Using mHealth and eHealth Technologies: Rapid Review of Reviews
Older people are at increased risk of adverse health events because of reduced physical activity. There is concern that activity levels are further reduced in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, as many older people are practicing physical and social distancing to minimize transmission. Mobile health (mHealth) and eHealth technologies may offer a means by which older people can engage in physical activity while physically distancing. The objective of this study, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, was to assess the evidence for mHealth or eHealth technology in the promotion of physical activity among older people aged 50 years or older.

Childhood Obesity (International)

Associations between lifestyle interventions during pregnancy and childhood weight and growth: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Maternal health and lifestyle during pregnancy may be critical for the onset and progression of childhood obesity. Prenatal lifestyle interventions have been shown to positively affect maternal behaviors, gestational weight gain, and anthropometric outcomes in infants at birth. The influence of such interventions on child weight or growth beyond birth is unknown. This review, published in International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, examined the association between lifestyle interventions during pregnancy and anthropometric outcomes during childhood.

Oral Health (International)

Tests to detect and inform the diagnosis of root caries
Root caries is a well‐recognised disease, with increasing prevalence as populations age and retain more of their natural teeth into later life. Like coronal caries, root caries can be associated with pain, discomfort, tooth loss, and contribute significantly to poorer oral health‐related quality of life in the elderly. Supplementing the visual‐tactile examination could prove beneficial in improving the accuracy of early detection and diagnosis. The detection of root caries lesions at an early stage in the disease continuum can inform diagnosis and lead to targeted preventive therapies and lesion arrest. The objective of this Cochrane Review was to assess the diagnostic test accuracy of index tests for the detection and diagnosis of root caries in adults, used alone or in combination with other tests.

Key Ministry of Health Publications

Annual Report for the year ended 30 June 2020
The 2019/20 Annual Report summarises the Ministry’s major work programmes and achievements, and demonstrates our progress towards our strategic intentions 2017-2021.

COVID-19 Psychosocial and Mental Wellbeing Plan
The revised Kia Kaha, Kia Māia, Kia Ora Aotearoa: COVID-19 Psychosocial and Mental Wellbeing Plan provides a framework for actions to support the mental wellbeing of New Zealanders as we respond to the impacts of COVID-19.

New Zealand Aotearoa Pandemic Response Policy for Aged Residential Care
The purpose of the New Zealand Aotearoa Pandemic Response Policy for Aged Residential Care is to provide nationally consistent guidance for aged residential care (ARC) stakeholders to prepare for, prevent and respond to an epidemic or pandemic.

District Health Board Initiative

Traditional Maaori activity an effective rehab tool
Every week patients on Middlemore Hospital’s adult neurological rehabilitation ward join Spinpoi instructor Joanne Paton for a session of Maaori performance art.

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.