Ministry of Health - Health Improvement & Innovation Digest
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Issue 334 - 27 November 2025
Welcome to the fortnightly Health Improvement and Innovation Digest. The Digest has links to key evidence of interest, with access to new content arranged by topic.
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Article Access
For articles that aren't open access, contact your Health NZ district library, or organisational or local library for assistance in accessing the full text. If your organisation has a subscription, you may be able to use the icon under full text links in PubMed to access the full article.
Health Equity (New Zealand)
Historically, settler states such as the USA, Canada, Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand (Aotearoa) have used government directives to entrench colonisation, producing long-lasting effects that marginalise Indigenous peoples. In Aotearoa, Māori (Indigenous peoples of New Zealand) have a sustained history of resisting colonisation, including pushing for change within the public sector. This article, published in AlterNative, explores how Māori staff in a Crown agency navigate the complexities of working for the Crown.
This study, published in the New Zealand Medical Journal, aimed to examine barriers and enablers to mental health support for transgender and gender-diverse individuals in rural Aotearoa New Zealand, drawing on research conducted in the Whanganui Region.
Pacific peoples in Aotearoa New Zealand face wide-ranging health issues and it is crucial that medical students learn how to approach and manage these from a culturally knowledgeable perspective. In 2024, the University of Auckland added novel Pacific ethnic-specific clinical case studies to the medical curriculum (for all students in years five and six), that is focused on Pacific people’s health and how to navigate clinical care by teams and wider health service systems. This study, published in Pacific Health Dialog, describes the course content and reports on the year five student evaluation survey findings from this new curriculum component.
This case study, published in Pacific Health Dialog, reports on the first microcredential implemented in Aotearoa New Zealand targeting community workers supporting Pacific families to improve health and wellbeing outcomes.
Health literacy is understudied in the Pacific region and among Pacific diasporas globally. This scoping review of health literacy research in the Pacific region and among Pacific peoples/diasporas globally, published in Public Health, aimed to summarise current knowledge and identify gaps and opportunities.
Health Equity (International)
Natural disasters and climate-related extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and severity, magnifying health inequities and exposing systemic weaknesses in health and social infrastructure. This umbrella review, published in Health Affairs Scholar, synthesised findings from 33 systematic reviews and meta-analyses published between 2005 and 2025 to assess the physical or mental health outcomes or healthcare access impacts of disasters on populations experiencing health disparities.
Nutrition & Physical Activity (New Zealand)
Little is currently known about adolescents’ diet quality and its determinants in New Zealand (NZ). This study, published in BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health, described the dietary patterns (DP) of 12-year-olds in the Growing Up in NZ cohort and their associations with sociodemographics and food security.
Household food insecurity is a major public health concern that disproportionately burdens mothers. Infants may be especially vulnerable to its negative impacts, given the central role mothers play in their feeding. Mothers' insights on infant complementary feeding while experiencing household food insecurity are needed to expand on previous research focused on breastfeeding. The aim of the study, published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, was to explore the experiences of New Zealand mothers introducing complementary foods to their infants in the context of household food insecurity.
Nutrition & Physical Activity (International)
Childhood overweight/obesity have emerged as pressing public health concerns globally, and the impact of the food environment on children's diets and health outcomes have gained heightened attention. Comprehensive and child-specific monitoring systems are critical for guiding targeted interventions and policies. This review, published in Advances in Nutrition, aims to synthesise recent literature on food environment indicators associated with children overweight/obesity using the 4A framework, including food availability, accessibility, affordability, and appeal.
Public Health (New Zealand)
This study, published in Health Policy, investigates how national policies in nine Western Pacific countries—China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Cambodia—promote healthy ageing through multi-sector collaboration. The objective is to identify common patterns and country-specific features in the governance and organization of collaborative efforts.
Indigenous homelessness in settler-colonial societies is determined by the ongoing impacts of colonisation. Therefore, policies to address homelessness need to be effective for Indigenous populations whilst supporting ongoing systemic decolonisation. Like other settler-colonial states, homelessness in Aotearoa New Zealand is disproportionately experienced by Māori, the Indigenous Peoples of Aotearoa. In Aotearoa NZ, Housing First has been funded by government to address chronic homelessness. Housing First is a rights-based approach to homelessness, centering around providing permanent housing and wraparound support, without preconditions such as sobriety or treatment compliance. As Housing First is a non-Indigenous North American model, the efficacy of the policy for Māori has been the subject of considerable discourse. This paper, published in The International Indigenous Policy Journal, presents a pre- and post-housing analysis of outcomes for Māori clients of a Housing First programme in Kirikiriroa-Hamilton, using integrated government administrative data across health, justice and social welfare.
Cancer Services (New Zealand)
In 2023, Aotearoa New Zealand's National Cervical Screening Programme introduced human papillomavirus (HPV) primary screening with the universal option to self-test. This change was informed by a primary care implementation study involving 3308 people due or overdue for cervical screening. The results of a cross-sectional survey conducted in 2023 were published in the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, and explored the perspectives on their experience of HPV primary screening, with separate analysis of responses from indigenous Māori participants - a group historically underserved by the screening programme.
This study, published in Supportive Care in Cancer, aimed to identify the supportive care needs of, and associated assessment tools for, family caregivers of Indigenous people with cancer.
Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes (New Zealand)
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) inequities in Aotearoa New Zealand disproportionately affect Māori and Pacific peoples, who experience higher risk factors, hospitalisations and mortality than NZ Europeans. These disparities stem from the historical and contemporary effects of colonisation, including institutional racism, impacting access to healthcare and socio-economic resources. Despite guidelines for earlier CVD risk assessments (CVDRA), gaps in identification and management persist. The Manawataki Fatu Fatu (MFF) for Māori and Pacific Hearts in Unison for Achieving Cardiovascular Care in Equity Studies (ACCESS) is a Māori and Pacific-led research programme examining CVD inequities in Aotearoa New Zealand. This study, published in the New Zealand Medical Journal, presents phase three, focussing on qualitative co-design hui (meetings) across Aotearoa New Zealand to gather insights from Māori and Pacific patients, whānau (family/supports) and kaimahi (healthcare workers) engaged with CVD services spanning primary to secondary care.
Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes (International)
Quality improvement strategies are increasingly being used across all healthcare settings to improve patient outcomes. However, the effectiveness of QI interventions in improving the care of cardiovascular (CVD) disease remains unclear. More evidence is needed to determine whether QI interventions can improve CVD medication use, manage risk factors, and enhance clinical outcomes. Therefore, this study, published in BMC Primary Care, aimed to systematically assess the effectiveness of QI interventions in improving CVD-related outcomes in both primary and tertiary healthcare services.
Primary Health Care (New Zealand)
The objective of this article, published in the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, was to examine pharmacy remuneration models minor ailments provided by pharmacists across OECD countries.
Primary Mental Health (International)
Suicide rates in rural and remote areas of Australia are notably higher compared to urban regions, with the incidence increasing with greater remoteness. Factors contributing to this include limited access to mental health services, social isolation and economic challenges, which result in lower rates of diagnosis and treatment for mental health disorders. This is particularly among men, youth and Australian Indigenous populations. Community-based suicide prevention programs aim to reduce barriers to mental health care and to increase awareness and support for those in need. This scoping review, published in Rural and Remote Health, evaluates the impacts and outcomes of these initiatives in rural and remote Australia.
Smoking Cessation (International)
Electronic cigarettes (EC) are handheld electronic vaping devices that produce an aerosol by heating a liquid. People who smoke, healthcare providers, and regulators want to know if EC can help people quit smoking, and if they are safe to use for this purpose. The objective of this Cochrane Review, was to examine the safety, tolerability, and effectiveness of EC for helping people who smoke tobacco achieve long‐term smoking abstinence, in comparison to non‐nicotine EC, other smoking cessation treatments, and no treatment.
Rates of smoking in pregnancy have declined in most high-income countries. However, disparities between those of different socioeconomic statuses and ethnicities persist. This objective of this review, published in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine, was to assess the effectiveness of interventions tailored to these equity-relevant characteristics on prenatal smoking cessation, postnatal abstinence and infant birth outcomes, and to assess whether outcomes are moderated by equity-relevant characteristics in universal interventions.
Key Ministry of Health Publications
The Annual Data Explorer presents results from the 2024/25 New Zealand Health Survey, with comparisons to earlier surveys where possible. Results are available by gender, age group, ethnic group, neighbourhood deprivation, health regions and disability status.
Drug checking provides an early intervention harm reduction service by determining the likely composition of illicit substances and providing harm reduction advice to individuals. Drug checking is regulated under amendments to the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 (MoDA), along with the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013, the Medicines Act 1981, and the relevant regulations of those Acts. For drug checking service providers to operate legally, the Director-General of Health must have licensed them.
This compliance guide is advisory only and has been written to provide some information for managing entities, dental practitioners, manufacturers/suppliers & service engineers on the activities associated with radiological equipment used for intra-oral, panoramic and cephalometric dental procedures (traditional dental X-ray units) and cone beam computed tomography dental procedures (CBCT dental X-ray units).
The monitoring of Whakamaua is made up of three main parts: quantitative monitoring, evaluative monitoring, and delivery monitoring. The insights gained from these three types of monitoring create an important feedback loop to identify challenges and successes throughout the implementation of Whakamaua. The quantitative measures presented in this dashboard are designed to provide a broad view of system performance against the four Whakamaua objectives.
Health Sector Initiative
New digital technology that will support the New Dunedin Hospital Outpatient Building is being rolled out ahead of the facility opening next year. A Digital Health Design Lab has been set up on Cumberland Street, across from the new outpatient building, where Health New Zealand teams are fine-tuning the digital systems that will be used in the new hospital. New Dunedin Hospital Digital Programme Director Phil Baskerville says the new technology is being developed in real time and will improve the patient experience in the new hospital.