Research team
Matt Hobbs (FoH – UoC)
Lukáš Marek (GRI GeoHealth Lab – UoC)
Peter McIntyre (UoC)
Pauline Dawson (UoO)
Amber Young (UoO)
Esther Willing (UoO)
Funding
HRC Activation Grant
Duration
2023
Project summary
Immunisation during pregnancy is a safe and effective way of protecting women and their babies against harmful diseases, both during and after pregnancy, however, low maternal immunisation coverage represents a significant public health challenge for Aotearoa/New Zealand. Moreover, inequities exist, with Māori and Pacific women around half as likely to have received maternal pertussis vaccination compared to New Zealand European/ ’Other’ women. In addition, while geographical variation in maternal immunisation coverage may exist, this has seldom been explored. Researchers and front-line practitioners in midwifery, pharmacy and immunisation/infectious diseases would like to work together to understand regional differences in maternal immunisation coverage. We will map coverage across New Zealand and develop an interactive web application to visualise maternal immunisation coverage for immunisation policymakers. This project represents the first steps towards reducing inequity and to support finding solutions to low regional levels of maternal immunisation coverage across New Zealand, especially for, and with, Māori wāhine.
Outputs
Hobbs, M., Marek, L., Young, A., Willing, E., Dawson, P. and McIntyre, P. (2023). Examining spatial variation for immunisation coverage in pregnant women: A nationwide and geospatial retrospective cohort study in Aotearoa New Zealand. Social Science & Medicine 335, 116228. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116228.
https://geohealthlab.shinyapps.io/hapumama/ 2023 (App).
Hobbs, M., Young, A., Turner, N., Dawson, P., Willing, E., McIntyre, P. and McIntosh, C. (2023) A new national health system: the opportunity to address data quality issues in maternal immunisation coverage. NZMJ 136(1578). https://nzmj.org.nz/journal/vol-136-no-1578.
