Health-related quality of life following trauma: Prevalence of problems and factors associated with six-month outcomes in a New Zealand cohort.

Injury is a leading cause of health loss in Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu (New Zealand; NZ). The NZ Trauma Registry was established in 2015 to monitor outcomes in those experiencing severe injury and to identify ways of improving the quality of care for these patients. Few NZ studies have assessed outcomes in trauma patients using patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) despite increasing recognition that the impacts of injury are better understood through PROMs.

New Zealand's Prospective Outcomes of Injury Study-10 years on (POIS-10): descriptive outcomes to 12 years post-injury.

Background: The 'Prospective Outcomes of Injury Study-10 years on' (POIS-10) aims to contribute to improving long-term disability, health and well-being outcomes for injured New Zealanders. This brief report describes recruitment, characteristics and key outcomes to 12 years post-injury.

Methods: Between 2007 and 2009, the study recruited 2856 people, including 566 Māori, from New Zealand's Accident Compensation Corporation's entitlement claims register.

How did New Zealand's regional District Health Board groupings work to improve service integration and health outcomes: a realist evaluation.

Objectives: In Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ), integration across the healthcare continuum has been a key approach to strengthening the health system and improving health outcomes. A key example has been four regional District Health Board (DHB) groupings, which, from 2011 to 2022, required the country's 20 DHBs to work together regionally. This research explores how this initiative functioned, examining how, for whom and in what circumstances regional DHB groupings worked to deliver improvements in system integration and health outcomes and equity.

Cohort profile: The Trauma Outcomes Project, a prospective study of New Zealanders experiencing major trauma.

Purpose: Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are useful for trauma registries interested in monitoring patient outcomes and trauma care quality. PROMs had not previously been collected by the New Zealand Trauma Registry (NZTR). More than 2500 New Zealanders are admitted to hospital for major trauma annually.

Health-related quality of life 12 years after injury: prevalence and predictors of outcomes in a cohort of injured Māori.

Purpose: Studies have found that many people who sustain an injury can experience adverse outcomes for a considerable time thereafter. Māori, the Indigenous peoples of Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu (New Zealand; NZ), are no exception. The Prospective Outcomes of Injury Study (POIS) found that almost three-quarters of Māori participants were experiencing at least one of a range of poor outcomes at two years post-injury.

Does support received for subsequent injuries differ between Māori and non-Māori? Findings from a cohort study of injured New Zealanders.

Aims: To examine if differences exist between injured Māori and non-Māori in accessing and receiving support from the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) for treatment and rehabilitation of subsequent injuries.

Methods: This cohort study utilised participants' self-reported data from the Prospective Outcomes of Injury Study, and ACC claims data.

Results: Approximately one-third of Māori (32%) and non-Māori (35%) who self-reported a subsequent injury had no associated ACC claim.

Predictors of EQ-5D-3L outcomes amongst injured Māori: 1-year post-injury findings from a New Zealand cohort study.

Purpose: Māori, the Indigenous population of New Zealand (NZ), are at higher risk of problems with health-related quality of life (HRQoL) 12 months following injury. This paper examines pre-injury sociodemographic and health characteristics and injury-related factors, including healthcare access, and their association with HRQoL outcomes 12 months after injury.

Methods: The Prospective Outcomes of Injury Study recruited 2856 injured New Zealanders aged 18-64 years from the entitlement claims register of the country's no-fault injury insurance agency.

Predictors of subsequent injury for Māori in New Zealand.

Introduction: This paper identifies predictors of subsequent injury (SI) in a cohort of injured Māori. Interventions to reduce SI among indigenous populations would help overcome the disproportionate burden of subsequent injury experienced, thereby reducing inequities in injury outcomes and the overall burden of injury.

Methods: Interview data from the Prospective Outcomes of Injury Study (POIS) were combined with Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC; New Zealand's universal no-fault injury insurer) and hospital discharge datasets.

Changes in the incidence of assault after restrictions on late-night alcohol sales in New Zealand: evaluation of a natural experiment using hospitalization and police data.

Aims: To estimate the effect of national restrictions on late-night availability of alcohol on alcohol-related assault at a population level as indicated by (1) change in hospitalizations for weekend assaults and (2) change in the proportion of assaults documented by police that occur at night.

Design: Evaluation of a natural experiment, involving: (1) pre-post comparisons of age-specific incidence rates, adjusted for seasonality and background trend using Poisson regression; and (2) interrupted time-series analyses, using seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) models of national data with no control site.

Setting: New Zealand.

Decade of variable progress: trends in fatal injury in workers in New Zealand from a national observational study.

Introduction: Analyses of secular trends in work-related fatal injury in New Zealand have previously only considered the total working population, potentially hiding trends for important subgroups of workers. This paper examines trends in work-related fatalities in worker subgroups between 2005 and 2014 to indicate where workplace safety action should be prioritised.

Methods: A dataset of fatally injured workers was created; all persons aged 15-84 years, fatally injured in the period 2005-2014, were identified from mortality records, linked to coronial records which were then reviewed for work relatedness.

Decade of fatal injuries in workers in New Zealand: insights from a comprehensive national observational study.

Introduction: Current priorities and strategies to prevent work-related fatal injury (WRFI) in New Zealand (NZ) are based on incomplete data capture. This paper provides an overview of key results from a comprehensive 10-year NZ study of worker fatalities using coronial records.

Methods: A data set of workers, aged 15-84 years at the time of death who died in the period 2005-2014, was created using coronial records.

Alcohol Harms over a Period of Alcohol Policy Reform: Surveys of New Zealand College Residents in 2004 and 2014.

We estimated the change in the prevalence of harms attributed by students to their drinking and to others' drinking, over a decade of concerted effort by university authorities to reduce antisocial behaviour and improve student safety. Interventions included a security and liaison service, a stricter code of conduct, challenges to liquor license applications near campus, and a ban on alcohol advertising. We used a pre-post design adjusting for population changes.

Do New Zealand communities have greater input to local alcohol policy? Population surveys before and after new legislation.

Background: New Zealand's alcohol law reforms aimed to give communities greater control over alcohol availability. We investigated whether community participation in local liquor licensing increased and why people did not participate.

Methods: We invited 4000 randomly selected residents to complete a questionnaire in 2014 about their views on alcohol in their community, participation in local alcohol decision-making, alcohol consumption, and experience of alcohol-related harm.

Identifying opportunities to prevent work-related fatal injury in New Zealand using 40 years of coronial records: protocol for a retrospective case review study.

Background: Improving New Zealand's poor workplace safety record has become a high priority following high profile workplace fatal incidents in 2010 and 2014. Existing routine official data are unable to reliably inform occupational safety policy and action in New Zealand. This case review study will examine work-related fatal injury (WRFI) to: i) determine their burden, rates and distribution; ii) identify high-risk groups, causes and circumstances; iii) analyse secular trends, and iv) examine the impact of historic occupational safety legislative reform.

Did New Zealand's new alcohol legislation achieve its object of facilitating public input? Qualitative study of Māori communities.

Background And Aims: The Treaty of Waitangi stipulates equality between Māori and non-Māori, yet Māori continue to have substantially poorer health, a driver of which is alcohol-related morbidity. In 2012, the New Zealand government introduced legislation claiming it would facilitate community input on decisions about alcohol. We investigated the experience of Māori communities with the new law.

Hazardous Drinking among Students over a Decade of University Policy Change: Controlled Before-and-After Evaluation.

: Responding to high levels of alcohol-related harm among students, a New Zealand university deployed a security and liaison service, strengthened the Student Code of Conduct, increased its input on the operation of alcohol outlets near campus, and banned alcohol advertising on campus. We estimated the change in the prevalence of alcohol consumption patterns among students at the university compared with other universities. : We conducted a controlled before-and-after study with surveys in residential colleges at the target university in 2004 and 2014, and in random samples of students at the target university and three control universities in 2005 and 2013.

Cancer Mortality, Early Detection and Treatment among Adult New Zealanders: Changes in Perceptions between 2001 and 2014/5.

Background: Beliefs about cancer risk and experience of early detection and treatment can impact on willingness to engage with these initiatives. This study describes changes in perceptions of cancer mortality, early detection and treatment among adult New Zealanders (NZ) between two cross-sectional studies conducted in 2001 and 2014/5. Methods: Data was collected via telephone interviews conducted by trained interviewers in 2001 (231 females and 207 males, 64% response rate) and 2014/5 (588 females and 476 males, 64% response rate).

Knowledge of Evidence-Based Cancer Risk Factors Remains Low Among New Zealand Adults: Findings from Two Cross-Sectional Studies, 2001 and 2015.

Objective: Cancer risk reduction messages are a part of cancer control efforts around the world. The complex reality is that risk factors differ for different types of cancer, making clear communication of desired behavioural changes more difficult. This study aims to describe awareness of risk factors for breast, bowel, cervical, prostate and lung cancer and cutaneous melanoma among New Zealanders in 2014/15 and identify changes in awareness since 2001.

Predictors of work participation for Māori 3 months after injury.

An important rehabilitation outcome for injured Māori is a timely sustainable return to work. This article identifies the factors influencing working after injury in an attempt to reduce the individual, social, and economic costs. Māori participants in the Prospective Outcomes of Injury Study were interviewed about preinjury and injury-related factors.

Cancer Information Seeking Among Adult New Zealanders: a National Cross-Sectional Study.

Organisations seeking to establish themselves as leading cancer information sources for the public need to understand patterns and motivators for information seeking. This study describes cancer information seeking among New Zealanders through a national cross-sectional survey conducted in 2014/15 with a population-based sample of adults (18 years and over). Participants were asked if they had sought information about cancer during the past 12 months, the type of information they sought, what prompted them to look for information and ways of getting information they found helpful.

Alcohol-attributable cancer deaths under 80 years of age in New Zealand.

Introduction And Aims: Cancer deaths made up 30% of all alcohol-attributable deaths in New Zealanders aged 15-79 years in 2007, more than all other chronic diseases combined. We aimed to estimate alcohol-attributable cancer mortality and years of life lost by cancer site and identify differences between Māori and non-Māori New Zealanders.

Design And Methods: We applied the World Health Organization's comparative risk assessment methodology at the level of Māori and non-Māori subpopulations.

Cancer Awareness in Aotearoa New Zealand (CAANZ), 2001 and 2015: Study Protocols.

Population cancer awareness is of interest worldwide, as efforts are made to reduce cancer incidence via changes in risk and protective behaviours. To date, few studies have described changes in awareness over time, despite significant investment in raising awareness about various cancer types and risk behaviours. This paper describes the Cancer Awareness in Aotearoa New Zealand (CAANZ) survey, a cross-sectional telephone survey of adult New Zealanders conducted in 2014/2015 (CAANZ15, n = 1064) and its comparison with a similar 2001 study (CAANZ01, n = 438).

Effects of small incentives on survey response fractions: randomised comparisons in national alcohol surveys conducted in New Zealand.

We experimentally evaluate inexpensive interventions to increase response fractions in two alcohol surveys. Residents on the New Zealand General and Māori electoral rolls were randomized to receive a survey pack with or without an offer of entry to a $500 prize draw. Subsequent randomization of sample members who did not initially respond allowed estimation of effects of offering a $5 donation to charity as an incentive to respond.

New Zealand's new alcohol laws: protocol for a mixed-methods evaluation.

Background: Alcohol consumption is a major cause of mortality and morbidity globally. In response to strong calls from the public for alcohol law reform, the New Zealand Government recently reduced the blood alcohol limit for driving and introduced the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act which aim to (1) improve community input into local decision-making on alcohol; (2) reduce the availability of alcohol; and (3) reduce hazardous drinking and alcohol-related harm. In this project we seek to evaluate the new laws in terms of these objectives.