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A health leader has labelled the latest Pasifika smoking rates "totally unacceptable", despite the New Zealand government celebrating them.
Associate Health Minister Casey Costello said in a press release that, over the last six years, the Pacific peoples smoking rate has halved.
"Most of the survey data shows a continuation of the great progress that's been made in the last few years - especially with falling numbers of Pacific peoples' smokers and very low rates of youth smoking," she said.
Associate Health Minister Casey Costello Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Auckland University professor Sir Collin Tukuitonga said Costello was being "very generous".
"It's dropped, no question, but it's still twice the rate as the rest of New Zealand. In other words, it's unacceptable that we have significant inequities," he said.
"To claim that it's halved in the last six years is, I think, a bit generous with the truth."
The data that the minister referred to - from the latest New Zealand Health Survey - showed that between the 2019-20 and 2024-25 fiscal years, the Pasifika daily smoking rate decreased from 18 to 10.3 percent of the population.
Further, "heavy smokers" as part of the daily smoker population among Pasifika increased in that time, from 4.6 to 5.5 percent.
Costello's office clarified to RNZ Pacific that they meant the 2018/19 fiscal year, which showed a drop of slightly more than half from 21 percent.
Pasifika smoking rates did see slight decreases from the last fiscal year in current and daily smoking rates.
While it showed an improvement, Sir Collin said it falls within a broader trend, and still falls well above the general population.
"We've had a long term trend downwards as a result of successive governments, not just this government policy, but educational programs and efforts by Pacific providers," he said.
"So it's been a long term decline. It's just that the rate of decline is very slow compared with the rest of New Zealand."
Sir Collin Tukuitonga Photo: RYAN ANDERSON/STUFF
Costello said the latest results showed "great progress" across the whole of Aotearoa.
"New Zealand has made some of the best progress in reducing smoking rates in the world - these latest survey results show adult daily smoking has halved in the last decade," she said.
Conversely, daily vaping rates have increased more than threefold from 3.5 percent in 2019-20 to 11.7 percent in 2024-25 for the general population.
For Pasifika, daily vaping has increased by more than five times during that same period, from 3.9 to 20 percent.
Other key indicators for Pasifika health, such as mental health and obesity, have worsened over the last six years.
Rates of high or very high psychological distress have more than doubled from 9.7 to 23.8 percent, while 16.2 percent of Pasifika report unmet needs for mental health and addiction care.
Alongside a 5.6 percent decrease in physical activity, obesity has increased from 63.8 percent to 69.5 percent, while Pasifika living with high blood pressure and high cholesterol have increased slightly.
The rate of ischaemic heart disease (or coronary heart disease) among Pasifika has more than doubled to 5.7 percent.
Nevertheless, hazardous drinking has seen an improvement, declining from 25.1 to 17.5 percent, and weekly heavy episodic drinking halving from 14.7 to 7.2 percent.
Fewer Pasifika are smoking cannabis (-3.1 to 12.7 percent), while more are using cocaine (+1 to 1.7 percent) and sedatives or sleeping pills (+1.3 to 1.8 percent).
