The Epidemiological Profile of Older Adults of Pacific Peoples Ethnicity in New Zealand Assessed for Home Support and Aged Residential Care

OBJECTIVE: To provide a descriptive analysis of the overall health and well-being of older adults of Pacific Peoples ethnicity using the interRAI-Home Care assessments, compared with NZ Europeans. METHODS: A cross-sectional retrospective analysis was conducted of interRAI-Home Care assessments assessed between 5 July 2016 and 31 December 2020. Basic descriptive information was gathered from Pacific Peoples and NZ Europeans separately. The frequency and percentage of the health conditions of interest were reported. Binary and multinomial logistic regression models adjusted for age and sex were used to investigate any differences between the prevalence of health conditions. RESULTS: A total of 123,023 interRAI-HC assessments were examined, of which 5390 (4%) were Pacific Peoples and 117,633 (96%) NZ Europeans. The mean age of Pacific Peoples was 75.8 years (SD 8.4) and NZ Europeans 82.6 years (SD 7.5). After adjusting for age and sex, Pacific Peoples were less likely to smoke, consume alcohol, have coronary heart disease, fall, report loneliness or have difficulty hearing than NZ Europeans. In contrast, Pacific Peoples were more likely to have diabetes, cognitive impairment, congestive heart failure, require a mobility aid or be bed bound, experience bladder incontinence, have difficulty understanding others or have poorer vision than NZ Europeans. CONCLUSIONS: Older Pacific Peoples who were assessed for home support and aged residential care have more complex needs and require services at an earlier age than NZ Europeans. There is a need for improvements in equity in the health system and underlying social determinants of health to raise the earlier age and lower the high burden of chronic diseases that Pacific Peoples face.