scholarly journals The health of older New Zealanders in relation to housing tenure: analysis of pooled data from three consecutive, annual New Zealand Health Surveys

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan Pledger ◽  
Janet McDonald ◽  
P Dunn ◽  
Jacqueline Cumming ◽  
K Saville-Smith

© 2019 The Authors Objective: To explore relationships between the housing tenure of older New Zealanders and their health-related behaviours, and physical and mental health. Methods: Pooled data were analysed for 15,626 older adults (aged 55+) from three consecutive, annual, nationally representative New Zealand Health Surveys to compare owner-occupiers, private renters and public renters. Results: Most in the sample were owner-occupiers (83.2%), with 12.4% private renters and 4.5% public renters. A higher proportion of renters aged 75+ were female. Māori and Pacific people were more likely to be renters. Renters were more likely to be living alone, on lower annual incomes. Overall measures of physical and mental health showed a health gradient, with public renters in the poorest health and owner-occupiers in the best health. Conclusions: Rental tenure is associated with poorer health. Implications for public health: Older renters tend to be economically disadvantaged and in poorer health than owner-occupiers. Over time, the proportion of older renters has been increasing. This will have implications for policy and for services in meeting the diverse care and support needs of older people. Higher rates of renting among Māori and Pacific people and older females means that these groups are particularly vulnerable to any negative impact of renting on health.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan Pledger ◽  
Janet McDonald ◽  
P Dunn ◽  
Jacqueline Cumming ◽  
K Saville-Smith

© 2019 The Authors Objective: To explore relationships between the housing tenure of older New Zealanders and their health-related behaviours, and physical and mental health. Methods: Pooled data were analysed for 15,626 older adults (aged 55+) from three consecutive, annual, nationally representative New Zealand Health Surveys to compare owner-occupiers, private renters and public renters. Results: Most in the sample were owner-occupiers (83.2%), with 12.4% private renters and 4.5% public renters. A higher proportion of renters aged 75+ were female. Māori and Pacific people were more likely to be renters. Renters were more likely to be living alone, on lower annual incomes. Overall measures of physical and mental health showed a health gradient, with public renters in the poorest health and owner-occupiers in the best health. Conclusions: Rental tenure is associated with poorer health. Implications for public health: Older renters tend to be economically disadvantaged and in poorer health than owner-occupiers. Over time, the proportion of older renters has been increasing. This will have implications for policy and for services in meeting the diverse care and support needs of older people. Higher rates of renting among Māori and Pacific people and older females means that these groups are particularly vulnerable to any negative impact of renting on health.


2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 182-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan Pledger ◽  
Janet McDonald ◽  
Phoebe Dunn ◽  
Jacqueline Cumming ◽  
Kay Saville‐Smith

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eirenei Taua'i ◽  
Rose Richards ◽  
Jesse Kokaua

Aims: To explore associations between experiences of mental illness, migration status and languages spoken among Pacific adults living in NZ. Methods: SURVEY FREQ and SURVEY LOGISTIC procedures in SAS were applied to data from Te Rau Hinengaro: The New Zealand (NZ) Mental Health Survey, a survey of 12,992 New Zealand adults aged 16 and over in 2003/2004. Pacific people were over sampled and this paper focuses on the 2374 Pacific participants but includes, for comparison, 8160 non-Maori-non-Pacific (NMNP) participants. Results: Pacific migrant respondents had the lowest prevalence of mental disorders compared to other Pacific peoples. However, Pacific immigrants were also less likely to use mental health services, suggesting an increased likelihood of experiencing barriers to available mental health care. Those who were born in NZ and who were proficient in a Pacific language had the lowest levels of common mental disorders, suggesting a protective effect for the NZ-born population. Additionally, access to mental health services was similar between NZ-born people who spoke a Pacific language and those who did not. Conclusions: We conclude that, given the association between Pacific language and reduced mental disorder, there may be a positive role for Pacific language promotion in efforts to reduce the prevalence of mental health disorder among Pacific communities in NZ.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (14) ◽  
pp. 3012
Author(s):  
Sandra Giménez ◽  
Miren Altuna ◽  
Esther Blessing ◽  
Ricardo M. Osorio ◽  
Juan Fortea

Sleep disorders, despite being very frequent in adults with Down syndrome (DS), are often overlooked due to a lack of awareness by families and physicians and the absence of specific clinical sleep guidelines. Untreated sleep disorders have a negative impact on physical and mental health, behavior, and cognitive performance. Growing evidence suggests that sleep disruption may also accelerate the progression to symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in this population. It is therefore imperative to have a better understanding of the sleep disorders associated with DS in order to treat them, and in doing so, improve cognition and quality of life, and prevent related comorbidities. This paper reviews the current knowledge of the main sleep disorders in adults with DS, including evaluation and management. It highlights the existing gaps in knowledge and discusses future directions to achieve earlier diagnosis and better treatment of sleep disorders most frequently found in this population.


2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-99
Author(s):  
G. Perera ◽  
G. Di Gessa ◽  
L. M. Corna ◽  
K. Glaser ◽  
R. Stewart

Aims.Associations between employment status and mental health are well recognised, but evidence is sparse on the relationship between paid employment and mental health in the years running up to statutory retirement ages using robust mental health measures. In addition, there has been no investigation into the stability over time in this relationship: an important consideration if survey findings are used to inform future policy. The aim of this study is to investigate the association between employment status and common mental disorder (CMD) in 50–64-year old residents in England and its stability over time, taking advantage of three national mental health surveys carried out over a 14-year period.Methods.Data were analysed from the British National Surveys of Psychiatric Morbidity of 1993, 2000 and 2007. Paid employment status was the primary exposure of interest and CMD the primary outcome – both ascertained identically in all three surveys (CMD from the revised Clinical Interview Schedule). Multivariable logistic regression models were used.Results.The prevalence of CMD was higher in people not in paid employment across all survey years; however, this association was only present for non-employment related to poor health as an outcome and was not apparent in those citing other reasons for non-employment. Odds ratios for the association between non-employment due to ill health and CMD were 3.05 in 1993, 3.56 in 2000, and 2.80 in 2007, after adjustment for age, gender, marital status, education, social class, housing tenure, financial difficulties, smoking status, recent physical health consultation and activities of daily living impairment.Conclusions.The prevalence of CMD was higher in people not in paid employment for health reasons, but was not associated with non-employment for other reasons. Associations had been relatively stable in strength from 1993 to 2007 in those three cross-sectional nationally representative samples.


Author(s):  
Oliver Robertson ◽  
Kim Nathan ◽  
Philippa Howden-Chapman ◽  
Michael Baker ◽  
Polly Atatoa Carr ◽  
...  

IntroductionHigh residential mobility has been shown to have a negative impact on young children, with long-term consequences for their physical and mental health, and social outcomes. Understanding the broad trends in moves and differentiating between moves to neighbourhoods which are likely to have ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ consequences is an important question in the residential mobility literature, with important implications for public policy and children’s health. Objectives and ApproachThe aims of this study are to describe the level and changes in neighbourhood deprivation that occur during residential moves involving children aged 0–4 years of age in New Zealand, and to assess whether these changes differ for children of different ethnicities. Our cohort is 565,689 children born in New Zealand from 2004 to 2018. The dataset of residential moves is created using the full address notification table from the Integrated Data Infrastructure, a set of government data tables that have been linked and anonymised by Statistics New Zealand. ResultsWhile there is a reasonable amount of mobility in terms of the deprivation of the area in which a child lives, the most likely outcome of a move is that it will be to an area with the same level of deprivation. This is especially true for the most and least deprived areas. Areas of high deprivation have the highest levels of churn and residential mobility. Māori and Pasifika children have lower levels of socioeconomic mobility and are more likely to move into and to stay in, areas of high deprivation. Conclusion / ImplicationsChildren living in highly deprived areas are likely to stay in high deprivation areas. Children living in these areas also move more frequently than the general population. Māori and Pasifika children are overrepresented in high deprivation areas, and on average they move more frequently than the group of all children aged 0 – 4.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-20
Author(s):  
Roger Mulder ◽  
Debbie Sorensen ◽  
Staverton Kautoke ◽  
Seini Jensen

Objective: To update measures of mental disorders and service use in Pacific people living in New Zealand. Method: A narrative review was conducted of available data on the prevalence of mental disorder, psychotropic drug prescribing and service use by Pacific people. Results: The 12-month prevalence of mental disorders in Pacific people was similar to European/Other in 2004. Currently Pacific people report high rates of psychological distress but lower levels of psychiatric disorders. Pacific adults have low rates of drinking but many who drink have a hazardous pattern. While Pacific people previously accessed services less than half the rate of European access, access rates in secondary care are now similar. Pacific people have relatively low rates of psychotropic drug use but these are increasing. Conclusion: There is limited evidence about Pacific people’s mental health in New Zealand. Patterns of psychopathology and service use may be different from other ethnic groups. Protective factors in Pacific culture should not be undermined when delivering mental health services.


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