News release

From: Pasifika Medical Association Group

Is ethnicity an independent predictor of health need? Linked cohort logistic regression analysis to predict amenable mortality

Current primary care funding is based on the age and sex of practice populations. The minister of health has announced plans to also add deprivation, multimorbidity and rurality to the funding calculations—but has excluded ethnicity. This paper assesses the independent association of ethnicity and health need, in groups with the same age, sex, deprivation, personal income, multimorbidity and rurality. After accounting for all other variables (age, sex, deprivation, personal income, health conditions and rurality), Māori and Pacific ethnic groups had significantly higher rates of deaths from conditions responsive to healthcare (amenable mortality). Compared to European ethnicity, Māori had 43–50% higher amenable death rates, and Pacific had 14–23% higher rates. Māori and Pacific ethnicity are independent markers of health need crucial for the distribution of health services. In order to distribute primary care funding fairly according to health need, we must include ethnicity in the funding calculation.