17 Jan 2020

Multi-prong approach needed to rectify disparate Maori health figures

From Summer Report, 8:44 am on 17 January 2020

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New research shows Maori have less access to early stage diagnosis for some important cancers like breast and colorectal cancer, which means worse survival statistics.

However, for some others, such as lung cancer, there isn't much difference between Maori and non-Maori.

Maori have more advanced disease at diagnosis for each of the cancers for which there's a national screening programme.

A group of researchers at the University of Otago published their findings on the New Zealand Medical Journal today.

Dr Jason Gurney, an epidemiologist at the university, is one of the authors and spoke with RNZ reporter Chen Liu.