Understanding Child Health Outcomes in New Zealand
Introduction
A third of New Zealand’s population is made up of Children and young people, collectively representing a national treasure. The children’s health, as well as their wellbeing, needs to be safeguarded to ensure the prosperity of the nation in the future. Although most children and young population in the state enjoy good health, disproportionate burdens of mortality and morbidity are experienced among some groups, resulting from accidents, long term health condition, and a range of factors impacted by the history and economy of the family regarding the resources that the family own. However, the government of New Zealand has formulated policies that accord the high priority in the reduction of the disparities in health outcomes in a manner of coordination. For instance, the health status of children and young people should be rendered visible. In the context of the child health outcomes in New Zealand, the approaches used in the past decades and the extent they achieved useful information in the health sector is essential, including the investigation of unmet information required in health sector to design the framework for monitoring the health of children in New Zealand, the applicable elements in the recent approaches of New Zealand for future structure. Information technology plays a vital role in providing systematic storage of data from previous researches, which necessitates the retrieving of information for reviews as far as New Zealand’s child and youth health outcomes are concerned.
Current Approach to Monitor Child and Youth Health in New Zealand
Following the past decades, in New Zealand, agencies produced a variety of publication which generally provide data that is useful in answering such questions as those targeting the previous approaches applied to monitor the child and youth health in the nation, unmet information needs, and valuable elements for the recent proposals in monitoring the New Zealand’s child and youth health outcomes.
Methodology
The reviews encompass the deriving the information concerning the child and young people’s health outcomes from the reports that were published previously, particularly those exploring various child and youth health issues at a certain point in time. However, the research strategy excludes the one-off research reports and literature reviews collating the findings from other publications as well as stories based on the one-off surveys which lacked the intention of repeating the study in future (Wood et al., 2019). Following the results of the New Zealand Literature Review, a search focusing on the stated criteria impacted a review on a large number of publications, with varying aims and objectives. Generally, the releases fell under the cross-section of:
- The routinely collected data
(a) Reports bringing together a wide range of data sources that provide a cross-sectional overview of child and youth health.
(b) Reports which explored the impact of changes in Government policies on child and youth outcomes.
(c) Reports considering the wellbeing of children and young people that targets New Zealand’s obligations under conventions as well as the declaration of the United Nations.
(d) Reports are exploring the resource allocation for improvement of child and youth wellbeing, illustrating the case studies in New Zealand.
The entire categories had a different focus, although they provided an overview of the health issues associated with the children and youth in New Zealand.
- National Survey Data
The current approaches to monitoring the child health outcomes in New Zealand derive information from the national surveys providing cross-section reviews of the wellbeing of the children and youths.
- Ongoing Monitoring Context of the whole population
Many government agencies monitor the subsets of child and youth health indicators of the entire population reports. For example, the Progress on health Outcome Target series has seven stories published between 1993 through 1999. The reports focused on the Progress of the health targets and contained particular child and youth sections, which had specific indicators towards each goal. The publication, an Indication of new Zealand’s health of 2000, comprised the reports focusing on the total population of New Zealand, although some sections targeted the youth and child health outcomes. Ideally, the agencies’ publications provide crucial information that is applicable in monitoring the child health outcomes currently in New Zealand.
- Ongoing Monitoring of a Single Child and Youth Health Issues.
Most current reporting series are relative to their recent origin, with consistently monitored aspects of child and youth health over several years. An example in this perspective is the annual fetal and Infant Death series of 1978. Focusing on the recent publications, most of them monitor the aspects of child and youth health, inclusive of the cancer notification of registry, smoking rates of children and physical activities associated with youth as well as intense neonatal care and other indicators in maternity reports (Mossialos et al., 2016). The reports considerably provide overall pictures of the child and youth health, providing valuable insights in several areas dating previous years.
- Ongoing Monitoring with a Child and Youth health Focus.
Organizations undertake more comprehensive Monitoring concerning child and youth health. Some focused on tracking the series of intersectional collaboration arising between such ministries as education policy, social policy, and health policy resulting from the strengthening of the family families initiative. As per the child and youth review committee, the statutory review focused on the death of children and young people with age ranging from four weeks to twenty-four years. However, the up to date reports have been produced by the New Zealand Child and youth epidemiology service.
Implications for Monitoring the Framework Development
While reviewing the reports from previous findings, the researchers face the consequences emerging for future developments of the framework. First, the recent New Zealand sector of health has a large number of governmental as well as non-governmental agencies with interest in child and youth health. The agencies allow for consultations that are necessary for ensuring that the development of a new monitoring framework meets the information needs. Besides, New Zealand is rich in the routinely collected data concerning the child and youth health, inclusive of their determinants at the population levels (Mitchell et al., 2016). Sometimes, the information has taken long following its collection, with consistent formats that make it necessary for comparisons. The increased number of agencies, however, has exhaustively explored the ways the government policies shape health and the wellbeing of the children as well as the young people, targeting the underlying determinants of health in the reports they make.
In addition to the implications, the release of the reports concerning children and young people within one to two years has been increasing in number, but with similar content of information. The increment in agencies, without a variable material, is suggestive of the need for a single agency that collates all the available data to set a cyclic trim schedule for report production in future, instead of many cost-ineffective agencies (Shahtahmasebi, 2010). Focusing on the past decade, none of the agencies touched the sectional review ion the child and youth wellbeing, running for more than two editions. Similarly, the health service restructuring cuts short on the limited baskets of indicators as a result of providing a consistent series of data. In turn, such changes initiate a reduced utility of data planning purposes; hence, paying attention to the appropriate organizations to host innovations is fundamental in developing a monitoring framework. Furthermore, the different criteria for selecting the indicator that different sectors utilize do not focus on a single set of child and youth health indicators that the government agencies monitor consistently.
Probably, the theoretical framework in this context has been applied consistently in the sectors as a portrayal of the complexes relationships between health outcomes and the related determinants at a population level. However, the previously used frameworks may serve as the starting point of the adaptation required in a child and youth population. Considerably, there is a need for prioritization of the recent New Zealand reports placing on the policy analysis and the traditional pathways involved in socioeconomic factors that shape the health outcomes of populations (Denny et al., 2016). Finally, the structure of the current health sector in New Zealand and the disproportionate information needs of DHBs blend the traditional Monitoring of the health outcomes with HNA at population levels. Essential utilities are available in this context to develop a broadly based indicator set with a membership of chief governance by the public health importance.
Information Technology has plaid a central role in enabling the retrieval of the information concerning the child and youth health outcome. For instance, the findings from the ministry of health concerning the health of the New Zealand children have provided a basis for the strategic directions for the child health strategy. Critically, child health in New Zealand uses information from varying sources, identifying the patterns and trends in child health outcomes. Most importantly, the sources cover the topics on child mortality and morbidity rates, infant health, disabilities, nutritional aspects, alcohol, and drugs, as well as the sexual and reproductive health of the children. Following the Health Child Programs, the reviews deliver the best health achievements and improvements in the family functioning, focusing on tobacco and its control measures, and interventions to protect children from injuries unintentionally and to improve on the child health services.
The most critical reviews concerning child health in New Zealand include an overview of the crucial indicators of child health. The issues under coverage in this perspective include the population demographics, fertility issues, mortality, asthma, gastroenteritis, respiratory tract infections, as well as notified infectious diseases, oral health, and hearing loss. Comprehensive reviews on child and youth health have been achieved by the use of routinely collected data courses. Such sections as demographics, the structure of families, early childhood education, health and disabilities, child poverty among other social services, and hazards are fundamentals in the reviews in this perspective (Buntin et al., 2011). However, the new reports are abundant in the information concerning the relevant developments in law, policies, and practices, inclusive of the plans to improve ion the rights of children. Other agencies like the New Zealand Children in a Time of Change reviews the effects associated with the social and economic reforms in New Zealand after the wellbeing of the children since the 1980s. The review, however, focuses on the family income, employment, inequalities in income, poverty, and deprivations directed to children.
With the help of IT, New Zealand has gained skills in monitoring approaches towards achieving child and youth health. In this case, lack of a single agency with primary responsibility in child and youth health monitoring has a meaning that a large number of the government, as well as the non-governmental agencies, cease playing such roles, investing in a considerable resource to produce reliable reports concerning child and youth wellbeing. The routinely collected data on child and youth health outcomes, for instance, the hospital administrations, mortality rates, and birth rates, and other determinants at a population level, enriches the nation with information in this context. Most importantly, the large numbers of comprehensive reports concerning the issue in this perspective, provide an overview of the problems associated with the children in New Zealand. Also, they give indications to a variety of governmental as well as non-governmental agencies that feel the critical issues for the children and the young population at the population levels.
In conclusion, the strategies towards the development of child and youth health in New Zealand are dependent on the previously recoded research reports. Considerably, the news could be prone to distortion if they were stored using the written forms, losing valuable information that is applicable in planning the future child and youth health. Ideally, the information technology provides secure storage and security of the stored data, as well as enabling easy retrieval as the need arises. New Zealand considerably applies IT in its plans to ensure child and youth health for future developments and achievements in the nation, with most of the strategies originating from the previously reported data.
References
Mitchell, E. A., Cowan, S., & Tipene‐Leach, D. (2016). The recent fall in post perinatal mortality in New Zealand and the Safe Sleep program. Acta Pediatrics, 105(11), 1312-1320.
Denny, S., Peterson, E. R., Stuart, J., Utter, J., Bullen, P., Fleming, T., … & Milfont, T. (2015). Bystander intervention, bullying, and victimization: A multilevel analysis of New Zealand high schools. Journal of school violence, 14(3), 245-272.
Mossialos, E., Wenzl, M., Osborn, R., & Sarnak, D. (2016). Two thousand fifteen international profiles of health care systems. Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health.
Wood, C., Ivec, M., Job, J., & Braithwaite, V. (2019). Applications of responsive regulatory theory in Australia and overseas.
Shahtahmasebi, S. (2010). Researching health service information systems development. In Health Information Systems: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications (pp. 42-59). IGI Global.
Buntin, M. B., Burke, M. F., Hoaglin, M. C., & Blumenthal, D. (2011). The benefits of health information technology: a review of the recent literature shows predominantly positive results. Health Affairs, 30(3), 464-471.