A report launched by the National Library of Medicine presented research on the rates of appendicitis imbalances within New Zealand children. The study’s analysis revealed increased severity in rural and Māori children as well as in families relying on external travel sources or reporting unfamiliarity with appendicitis symptoms.
Appendicitis is the most common reason children undergo acute general surgery. About 1 in 10 children will have this, but internationally, population-level disparities do exist. While the rate of complicated appendicitis was 38.5% , there were significantly higher rates within rural (44.1%) and Māori (54.8%) children.
This report is very significant in highlighting the unequal outcomes of health wealth, based on socioeconomic factors of rural and Māori communities.
From an interview with RNZ New Zealand Radio, Dr. Brodie Elliot told Midday Report about the research done regarding these health disparities.
“Parents have to assist their children on how severe it's going to be and they gotta weigh that up, if the opportunity costs to come into hospital. If you live across the road and you’ve got another partner that has money, going to hospital it’s gonna be pretty easy for you. As soon as you start adding rurality, travel distance, and multiple children, previous bad experiences with the hospital, your threshold as parents is going to be higher to access hospital”
To address the disparities in healthcare access and outcomes this can be resolved by improving health literacy, reducing delays in treatment, and ensuring access to surgical care for rural and Māori communities.
While these delays can increase the likelihood of complications such as perforated appendicitis, New Zealand researchers are raising awareness to better these statistics and health literacy within the Pacific.
