A cohort study comparing cardiovascular risk factors in rural Maori, urban Maori and non-Maori communities in New Zealand.

Objectives: To understand health disparities in cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the indigenous Māori of New Zealand, diagnosed and undiagnosed CVD risk factors were compared in rural Māori in an area remote from health services with urban Māori and non-Māori in a city well served with health services.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Hauora Manawa is a cohort study of diagnosed and previously undiagnosed CVD, diabetes and risk factors, based on random selection from electoral rolls of the rural Wairoa District and Christchurch City, New Zealand.

Community screening for cardiovascular risk factors and levels of treatment in a rural Māori cohort.

Objectives: To document levels of cardiovascular disease (CVD), diagnosed and undiagnosed risk factors and clinical management of CVD risk in rural Māori.

Methods: Participants (aged 20-64 years), of Māori descent and self-report, were randomly sampled to be representative of age and gender profiles of the community. Screening clinics included health questionnaires, fasting blood samples, blood pressure and anthropometric measures.

Renal stone disease in Christchurch, New Zealand. Part 2: a community study on the burden of renal stone disease.

Aim: To quantify the annual burden of a 12-month cohort of newly diagnosed renal stones in the defined community of Christchurch, New Zealand, and to assess this burden by stone size and position.

Method: In this prospective study of stone burden, patients in the Christchurch region of New Zealand with newly diagnosed renal stones maintained a weekly diary for a 12-month period to record the utilisation of health services and financial and social costs to families and partners. Patient records were matched with diagnostic and clinical information to provide a comprehensive database.

Renal stone disease in Christchurch, New Zealand. Part 1: presentation and epidemiology.

Aim: To document the modes of presentation and the epidemiology of radiologically diagnosed renal stone disease over a 1-year period in the region of Christchurch, New Zealand.

Method: Data on the presentation and epidemiology of renal stone disease was prospectively collected in a 1-year cohort of patients who had a new radiological diagnosis of renal stone disease.

Results: The incidence of new renal stone diagnoses was 105 per 100,000 per annum.

The costs of not treating hepatitis C virus infection in injecting drug users in New Zealand.

This paper estimates future health service costs of the current practice in New Zealand of not funding treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections. Costs are estimated separately for Māori and non-Māori, male and female IDUs. Markov modelling is used to track the infection and progression of HCV to severe liver disease and death, and accumulated costs are estimated for the life of the cohort.