Gout insights – Impact on Māori

Biological factors for Māori (such as genetic variants and kidney disease) mean they are twice as likely to live with gout compared to non-Māori, non-Pacific people.

Media release: New report estimates 10,400 more Māori should be on preventive treatment for gout

About the insights report

This report focuses on the prescribing and dispensing of medicines for gout. It’s the first in a series of insights developed by Pharmac to implement our Medicine Access Equity Monitoring and Outcomes Framework.

These insights will be particularly useful for the health system, including health practitioners, health workers, and policy makers. We know there are systemic and societal influences that we need to address to achieve equitable outcomes. Research like this allows us all to better understand the problem.

An estimated 10,400 more Māori need to be prescribed urate-lowering medicine each year

Preventive gout medicines work. Being prescribed the right dose of urate-lowering medicine regularly can improve people’s lives dramatically.

To achieve equity of access to medicines, we estimate about 10,400 more Māori a year should be started on a preventive gout medicine by their health professional.

While 6% of the Māori population are being dispensed preventive gout medicine (compared to 3% of non-Māori, non-Pacific people), this is still not enough based on our analysis.

We used hospitalisation data to assess potential unmet health need. Māori are 6.9 times more likely to be hospitalised with gout compared to non-Māori, non-Pacific people.

Who to contact

Find out more about our methodology

If you have questions or feedback about our data, email accessequity@pharmac.govt.nz