SF-12 indicators of health following the 22 February 2011 Christchurch earthquake.

AIM: To explore the health status of people who experienced the magnitude 6.3 earthquake in Christchurch on 22 February 2011, across time and in comparison with other New Zealanders. METHODS: Data from five New Zealand Health Surveys (2011/12, 2012/13, 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16), which each sampled around 13,000 people, aged 15+ years, living in New Zealand. Respondents completed the SF-12 questionnaire and were asked if they experienced the earthquake. About 1,000 respondents in each survey had. The survey data were pooled and the physical and mental health composite scores were created from the SF-12 data. RESULTS: Those who experienced the earthquake had, on average, better mental and physical health composite scores in 2011/12, although not all scores were significantly better. In 2013/14, all mental and physical health composite scores indicated, on average, worse health status, and for men the differences were significant. The age groups most affected were 45-64 for women and 45-64 and 65+ for men. Some improvement occurred from 2014/15 onwards. CONCLUSION: The pattern of an initial improvement in health, followed by a deterioration and subsequent improvement follows the heroic/honeymoon/disillusionment/reconstruction model of response to a disaster.

Unmet need of GP services in Pacific people and other New Zealanders.

AIM: To compare the unmet need of GP services for Pacific peoples (mostly of Samoan, Tongan, Niuean, or Cook Islands origin) and Other New Zealanders (predominantly European New Zealanders, Maori, and Asian New Zealanders). METHODS: The New Zealand Health Survey 2006/2007 sampled 12,488 people, aged 15+ years, living in private dwellings in New Zealand. Of these 1033 were Pacific peoples and 11,455 were Other New Zealanders. Self-reported unmet GP need in the previous 12 months was modelled using logistic regression with sociodemographic, health status and risk variables as covariates. RESULTS: Age, sex, educational level, New Zealand individual Deprivation Index, self-rated health, spinal disorders and daily smoking were associated with unmet GP need. Ethnicity has two interactions in the model, one with asthma and the other with body mass index (BMI). The difference in unmet need between Pacific peoples and Other New Zealanders was explained in part by Pacific peoples being more likely to be in categories with more deprivation characteristics but countered by Other New Zealanders having a higher probability of having higher educational qualifications where there was also higher unmet need. Those with unmet GP need in the higher educational levels were more likely to say "they couldn't spare the time". CONCLUSION: Unmet GP need is associated with ethnicity, health need and financial and time constraints.

Health service use amongst users of complementary and alternative medicine.

AIM: To describe people using complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) and to compare their utilisation of health services with non-CAM users. METHODS: The data comes from the New Zealand Health Survey 2002/2003 which sampled 12,529 people, aged 15 and older, [corrected] living in private dwellings in New Zealand. Participants self-reported socio-demographic details, health status, and health service use. Proportions (and 95% confidence intervals) of people using each CAM service are presented. CAM and non-CAM users are compared across a range of factors using regression, logistic regression or multinomial regression so that the different age and sex structure in the two groups can be accounted for. RESULTS: CAM users are more likely to be middle-aged, rich, well-educated, of European descent and female. They are more likely to have hard to treat conditions and to be less well but actively try to maintain their health. They utilise more health services and are more likely to seek information about their health and medicines.

Does melatonin improve sleep in older people? A randomised crossover trial.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: to determine whether melatonin will improve quality of sleep in healthy older people with age-related sleep maintenance problems. DESIGN: a double blind randomised placebo controlled crossover trial in healthy older volunteers. SETTING: a largely urban population, Auckland, New Zealand. PARTICIPANTS: participants were part of the larger Possible Role of Melatonin in Sleep of Elders study. People 65 years or more of age were recruited through widespread advertising. We screened 414 potential participants by mail using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and selected 194 for clinic interview. Exclusions included depression, cognitive impairment, hypnosedative medications, sleep phase abnormalities, medical and/or environmental problems that might impair sleep. Twenty normal and 20 problem sleepers were randomly allocated for this study from a larger sample of 60 normal and 60 problem sleepers. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: 24-hour urine 6-sulphatoxymelatonin was measured to estimate melatonin secretion in each participant. Five milligrams of melatonin, or matching placebo were each taken at bedtime for 4 weeks, separated by a 4-week washout period. Sleep quality was measured using sleep diaries, the Leeds Sleep Evaluation Questionnaire, and actigraphy. There was a significant difference between the groups in self-reported sleep quality indicators at entry, but no difference in melatonin secretion. Melatonin did not significantly improve any sleep parameter measured in either group. CONCLUSION: 5 mg of fast release melatonin taken at bedtime does not improve the quality of sleep in older people with age-related sleep maintenance problems.