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Download AudioAn Otago University paediatrician, says a new study showing children with type one diabetes have poorer education outcomes is bad news for Māori and Pasifika tamariki.
The study of more than 440-thousand children born between 1993 and 2001 identified about 2000 with type one diabetes.
Professor Ben Wheeler says the disease disproportionately affects Maori and Pasifika, and the lower socio-economic status of many whanau means they don’t get equitable access to currently available treatments.
“So, access to Pharmac funding and government funding of advanced diabetes therapies – whether they’re pills, injections, or things like our artificial pancreas systems – that’s got to be a massive focus for us to make sure we get it into the hands of the people who really need it,” he says.
Professor Wheeler says while type one diabetes is far less common than type two – it is more dangerous because the body cannot produce its own insulin – without which a patient will die.
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