Lay summary
Recent research in South Auckland has shown that siblings of children with acute rheumatic fever have an approximately three times increased risk of themselves having rheumatic heart disease, as compared to children living in whānau where there is no-one else affected.
Despite this evidence, siblings of children with rheumatic fever are not currently offered a heart scan or any additional health checks for rheumatic heart disease.
This project will develop, implement and evaluate a new approach for offering heart scans to siblings of rheumatic fever patients in Counties Manukau. Māori and Pacific nurses will be trained to perform heart scans (echocardiograms). Māori and Pacific health researchers will also undertake interviews, hui and fono with whānau to understand their experiences of echocardiography and their preferences regarding the development of a sibling echocardiography programme at Counties Manukau. The programme will be piloted over 18 months and then evaluated.