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Persistent poverty in Pasifika families

Year:
2018
Duration:
3 months
Approved budget:
$5,000.00
Researchers:
Miss Kotalo Leau
Health issue:
Child and youth (healthy) development
Proposal type:
Pacific Health Summer Studentship
Lay summary
In New Zealand, more than a quarter of children are living in poverty (UNICEF NZ, 2016). Looking deeper though, these statistics seem to follow a social gradient where more than half of the Pacific population live in the most deprived areas of New Zealand (Pasifika Futures, 2015). Thus it is no surprise that Pacific peoples are three times more likely to be unemployed than New Zealand European families, more likely to be renting than non-Maori or Pacific peoples, and of those living in the most deprived areas, 60% of these families live in crowded houses (Simpson, Duncanson, Oben, Wicken and Gallagher, 2016).These factors then severely affect Pacific people’s health where Pacific and Maori face the brunt of the hospitalisation burden for skin infections (O’Sullivan and Baker, 2012). The aim of this project is to identify persistent poverty and the effect on child health outcomes for Pasifika families.