Racism and health in New Zealand: Prevalence over time and associations between recent experience of racism and health and wellbeing measures using national survey data
Racism is an important health determinant that contributes to ethnic health inequities. This study sought to describe New Zealand adults' reported recent experiences of racism over a 10 year period. It also sought to examine the association between recent experience of racism and a range of negative health and wellbeing measures.
The study utilised previously collected data from multiple cross-sectional national surveys (New Zealand Health Surveys 2002/03, 2006/07, 2011/12; and General Social Surveys 2008, 2010, 2012) to provide prevalence estimates of reported experience of racism (in the last 12 months) by major ethnic groupings in New Zealand. Meta-analytical techniques were used to provide improved estimates of the association between recent experience of racism and negative health from multivariable models, for the total cohorts and stratified by ethnicity.
Reported recent experience of racism was highest among Asian participants followed by Māori and Pacific peoples, with Europeans reporting the lowest experience of racism. Among Asian participants, reported experience of racism was higher for those born overseas compared to those born in New Zealand. Recent experience of racism appeared to be declining for most groups over the time period examined. Experience of racism in the last 12 months was consistently associated with negative measures of health and wellbeing (SF-12 physical and mental health component scores, self-rated health, overall life satisfaction). While exposure to racism was more common in the non-European ethnic groups, the impact of recent exposure to racism on health was similar across ethnic groups, with the exception of SF-12 physical health.
The higher experience of racism among non-European groups remains an issue in New Zealand and its potential effects on health may contribute to ethnic health inequities. Ongoing focus and monitoring of racism as a determinant of health is required to inform and improve interventions.
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science
4
2%
Other
20
9%
Unknown
106
48%
Attention Score in Context
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 24. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 29 February 2024.
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Altmetric has tracked 32,831,300 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 93rd percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
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