So researchers say in the latest Briefing from the Department of Public Health at the University of Otago, Wellington.

They say the risk of developing dementia is 60 per cent higher for people living in New Zealand's most deprived areas compared to those in the least deprived.

Right now, our dementia rates are soaring, the Briefing says.

Dr ‘Etuini Ma'u and co-authors from the Department of Psychological Medicine at the University of Auckland saw that Maori and Pacific people are particularly at risk.

They are over-represented in the more disadvantaged areas of NZ society, Ma'u says.

Forty percent live in areas of high deprivation.

"These findings indicate that the higher risk and rates of dementia in Maori and Pacific peoples are not due to ethnicity per se but their over-representation in areas of high social disadvantage and poverty."

What to do

Prevention through broader population-level approaches, like policies addressing inequity, could significantly reduce the number of people with dementia, Ma'u says.

He says it's already known that the number of people living with dementia in NZ is expected to double in the next 20 years.

It will triple in the same period for Maori and Pacific peoples.

The recent Lancet Commission Report pointed to 14 risk factors for the disease Aa'u says. From this, we know good policy can change that trajectory.

Even by reducing 12 of the 14 risk factors by just 10 per cent could mean 3,000 fewer people get dementia.

"Most risk factors build up across a lifetime" he explains.

"It is their incremental and cumulative damage to the brain that eventually leads to dementia.

"This shows the importance of promoting brain health in early life and midlife, even when the immediate dementia risk is deemed to be low."

While individual behaviour changes are important, social policy should also play a role the Briefing authors say.

They would like to see effective policies and interventions to address the health inequities associated with poverty and social disadvantage.

Targeted legislative and public health measures to reduce the availability and marketing of alcohol, tobacco and unhealthy food would help.

"So would urban planning that promotes exercise and social connection" Ma'u says.

Source

• Sun Live

Aupito William Sio is calling on district health boards to work closely with Pacific community groups to encourage more in the community to get the Covid-19 vaccine.

Sio's comments come following the mass vaccination event in south Auckland in July, which did little to increase the numbers for Pasifika vaccination.

Of the nearly 16,000 people who received their Covid-19 vaccine at the three-day mass vaccination drive in Manukau, only 1301 were Pasifika. Read more