Lung screening trial expanded for Maori 27 Jul 2021 12:03 PM
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The Health Research Council is putting up $1.2 million from its Rangahau Hauora Maōri investment stream so a study of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease among Māori can piggy back on the country’s first-ever national lung cancer screening trial.
University of Otago professor and study lead Dr Sue Crengle says COPD is a smoking-related condition that is more common among Māori - occurring at a younger age than it does in other ethnic groups.
Māori also have much higher rates of hospitalisation for COPD-related illness.
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Women in Tāmaki Makaurau will get early access to a cervical cancer self-screening test, two years before the national roll out. Gynecological swab for HPV. Source: istock.com
The screening allows women to test themselves for the cancer-causing virus rather than having a pap smear with a doctor or nurse.
A research programme targeting Māori and Pacific women is looking at how the do-it-yourself test will work, what helps it work and what is needed to achieve equity.
Waitematā and Auckland District Health Boards health outcomes director Dr Karen Bartholomew said it was clear the current cervical cancer test was not working for Māori and Pasifika, and it was hoped self-testing would reach more women.
An Auckland HPV self-testing research programme will target Maori and Pasifika women 24 May 2021
Some clinics will offer kits to those overdue for a smear - and see if they re keen on self-testing.
It ll help inform the Ministry of Health before national rollout of the kits from 2023.
Waitemata and Auckland DHB Director of Health Outcomes, Dr Karen Bartholomew, says that group of women aren t well served in terms of cervical cancer.
She says that s in terms of access to screening and cancer outcomes with Maori women s mortality rates two to three times higher.
Photo: 123RF
The screening allows women to test themselves for the cancer-causing virus rather than having a pap smear with a doctor or nurse.
A research programme targeting Māori and Pacific women is looking at how the do-it-yourself test will work, what helps it work and what is needed to achieve equity.
Waitematā and Auckland District Health Boards health outcomes director Karen Bartholomew said it was clear the current cervical cancer test was not working for Māori and Pasifika, and it was hoped self-testing would reach more women. We re working with Total Healthcare, Tāmaki Health, which is a large primary care organisation across Auckland and they have low screening coverage, particularly for Māori and Pacific women, Dr Bartholomew told
JASON DORDAY/Stuff
Select clinics will offer the opportunity to self- test for HPV as part of a new research programme. (File photo) They will be offered the choice of doing an HPV self-test in the clinic or at home. They can then drop the test back to the clinic or mail the sample in. The preferred method and rise in self-testing will then be analysed, the results of which will help inform the Ministry of Health on how to operate the national HPV self-testing programme in two years’ time.
Tom Hunt/Stuff
Earleir this month Minister of Health Andrew Little and Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall made the first Budget 2021 health announcement, assigning $53 million to the design and implementation of new testing for HPV.