Cancer is leading cause of death - Ministry

Cancer is New Zealand’s leading cause of death, according to the latest New Zealand Health Information Service (NZHIS) official figures.

Cancer: New Registrations and Deaths 2003, shows there were 18,586 new cancer registrations in that year. This is an increase of 3.6 percent since 2002 and 17.2 percent since 1995.

Cancer is New Zealand’s leading cause of death, with the 8027 deaths from cancer accounting for almost one in three deaths in 2003.

“The increased risk of cancer in older people, means New Zealand’s aging population and population growth accounts for most of the increase in new cancer registrations,” says Ministry of Health principal advisor cancer control Dr John Childs.

The report shows Māori are more likely than non Māori to die from cancer. Māori women were more than four-and-a-half-times more likely to die from lung cancer than non- Māori women, Māori men were more than two-and-a-half-times more likely.

"These figures confirm the importance of the work we are doing with Māori and other New Zealanders to prevent cancer, such as encouraging people to quit smoking and eat more fruit and vegetables. We are also working to improve access for Māori to earlier diagnosis and treatment," Dr Childs says.

The cancer report was one of three annual New Zealand Health Information Service (NZHIS) reports that were released today.

The number of New Zealand women who planned homebirths is recorded for the first time in the latest Report on Maternity: Maternal and Newborn Information 2004.

The report shows about 2000 women planned a homebirth in 2004, and of them about 55 percent went on to give birth at home.

There were 58,723 live babies born in 2004 and the average age of mothers is 30.3 years. The percentage of mothers having caesareans increased to 23.7 percent, from 23.1 in 2003.

The Mental Health: Service Use in New Zealand 2004 report published today presents information about mental health clients seen in a particular year and details of the services they received.

District Health Boards saw 88,540 mental health clients in 2004. Of these clients, about 55 percent were seen by community teams, about 10 percent received inpatient care and the rest were seen by other services such as child, adolescent and family services, or alcohol and drug teams.

Please go to www.nzhis.govt.nz for more information about these reports.