Health problems among six-week old Pacific infants living in New Zealand

The purpose of this paper is to describe maternal reports of various health problems experienced by their Pacific infants in the first six weeks of their lives and to examine the infant, maternal and socio-demographic factors associated with infant health problems.

The data were gathered as part of the Pacific Islands Families: First Two Years of Life (PIF) Study in which mothers in the cohort (n=1376) were interviewed about the health problems experienced by their infants (n=1398) in the first six weeks of life.

Fifty-five percent of mothers reported that their infant had experienced minor health problems, and 15.6% reported moderate to severe infant health problems. Most mothers (98%) reported that they had a regular family doctor or health clinic to go to if their infant had a health problem. We found no meaningful associations between infant, maternal, or socio-demograhic variables and general infant health problems, possibly because of the wide range of infant illnesses reported. Since 43% of the infant health problems reported were related to breathing difficulties we carried out univariate and multivariate analyses on this specific health problem. Factors significantly associated (p<0.05) with infant breathing problems were maternal cigarette smoking during the last trimester, cold housing, and residing in New Zealand for over 10 years.

The high rate of infant health problems, in particular infant breathing problems, among Pacific infants in this cohort and the significant links with modifiable factors warrant priority action by housing and health agencies to minimise the consequences of these risk factors.