Benedict Collins
Asians in New Zealand are failing to properly access the country’s health system and have alarmingly low levels of participation in potentially life-saving national screening programmes.
These are the findings of a new report, Asian Health in Aotearoa, which shows that Asians in New Zealand fall well below the national norm when it comes to participating in the health system.
It found that Asians are less likely than other ethnic groups to have a primary health care provider or see health professionals, and less likely to use public or private hospitals.
Auckland University of Technology’s Centre of Asian and Migrant Health senior research fellow Ruth DeSouza said there was a range of barriers that prevented Asians from accessing the health system, including a lack of familiarity with New Zealand and its customs, shyness and a Western-style medical system.
DeSouza, who is also on the Pacific Media Centre advisory board, told The United Press that there were too flashpoint Asian health issues that were being exacerbated by their inadequate level of interaction with the health system.
Firstly, lack of sexual and reproductive health awareness and low participation rates by Asian women, particularly Chinese, in screening programmes.
Obesity rates
Secondly, the rapidly growing obesity rates within South Asian communities (those from Bhutan, Indian, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka).
Asian Health in Aotearoa found that Asian women in New Zealand are far less like to have mammography or cervical screening tests than NZ-European women.
While 84 percent of NZ-European women and 75 percent of Maori women aged 20-69 years had cervical smear tests in the last three years, only 51 percent of Asian women and 55 percent of South Asian women had done so.
“Chinese women, in particular, are not use to the idea of a public health system and not used to the idea of screening,” DeSouza said.
“Part of the problem is the lack of orientation into the system.”
Another related problem, said DeSouza, was the lack of sexual education and awareness of contraception options by young Asian women in New Zealand leading to a very high rate of pregnancy terminations.
DeSouza said research showed that people from certain Asian nations found it harder to use the health system than others.
Hardest time
“People from mainland China have the hardest time of all accessing services in New Zealand; people from Hongkong find it easier, and Taiwanese easier still – this can be linked to their proficience in English.
“And when you think about Koreans – 75 percent of Koreans here in New Zealand have arrived in the last 10 years. How long does it take to become accustomed to new systems and practices?
“You don’t know what you don’t know.”
The report also found that South Asians have higher rates of hypertension, high blood cholesterol and diabetes compared with European New Zealanders and comparatively low rates of physical activity.
DeSouza said South Asians were predisposed to storing fat around their organs “which puts them at huge risk of cardiovascular problems”.
They’re also the group least likely to be getting enough physical exercise,” she said.
DeSouza said South Asians were equally as vulnerable to cardiovascular and obesity-related problems as the Maori and Pacific Island populations and that the health system needed to start screening those 10 years earlier than Europeans.
Benedict Collins is a graduate from AUT University and reporter with The United Press, where this article was first published.
Pacific Media Centre
