Death rate on Coast ‘exceptionally high’

Press, 9 December 1976, Page 18

Death rate on Coast ‘exceptionally high’

Staff reporter Greymouth

The West Coast is a region of exceptionally high mortality, according to Dr L. D. B. Heenan, a senior lecturer in geography at Otago University. Dr Heenan said in an article in the “New Zealand Geographer” that Westport has a significantly higher mortality rate, while the Buller county has the lowest. Between 1964 and 1967 there were 200 deaths on the West Coast which would not have occurred if the rates of dying for each sex had been at the national average, Dr Heenan said. The main cause of death was arteriosclerotic and degenerative heart disease, which was responsible for 32.3 per cent of deaths, compared with 29.5 per cent for New Zealand as a whole. The West Coast is also a high-risk area for bronchitis, pneumonia, and disorders of the cardiovascular system, he said. Above average and often very high incidences of circulatory disorders were found in the Grey county, Westport, and Hokitika, and for women only in Greymouth and Brunner. Such diseases may be hereditary, Dr Heenan said. On the other hand, the Coast had a low frequency of diabetes, suicide, malignant neoplasms, and infectious and parasitic diseases, he said.

There was a low over-

all incidence of cancer, and less cancer of the genito-urinary organs, including the breast, than the national average. However, death from cancer of the digestive organs w r as well above the expected levels.

The incidence of gastric carcinoma, especially among women, was higher than in most other parts of New Zealand, Dr Heenan said.

Men living in Greymouth and the Grey county had unusually high mortality rates from respiratory , cancer. Infant mortality was below the national average. The average annual death rate for 1964-67 was 17.7 per 1000 births, but although Westport (5.8) had the lowest infant death rate, the Buller county (34.9) had the highest.

The Westland and Inangahua hospital districts had unusually high occurrences of infant mortality.

Death by misadventure, other than through motor accidents, was the fourth most common cause of death, preceded by arteriosclerotic and degenerative heart diseas, cancer, and vascular lesions of the central nervous system. Industrial, domestic, and other accidents claimed twice as many lives as would be anticipated, Dr Heenan said. This would have to be partly attributed to the high risk factor associated with the male-dominated occupations — fishing, forestry, and coal mining.

Dr Heenan said that the Coast’s high death rate helped to perpetuate its socio-economic problems. Accidents and illness often cause low job status. A reduction in earnings, premature retirement, death, and widowhood. The isolation of the Coast also played a part, Dr Heenan said. A study in Westport in 1968 found that school leavers with high scholastic ability and educational and vocational aspirations were most likely to leave the Coast. If the same applied to health status, those who were less healthy, lesss able educationally and less ambitious tended to be left behind. Dr Heenan has suggested that more investigation of the Coast's high mortality rate indicated possible links between diet, digestive cancer, and heart disease.

He said that no matter which way the mortality pattern was turned, it was obvious that the existing local public health service was unable to cope adequately with the Coast’s health problems.

As the population decreases, the area would become less attractive for medical personnel. Dr Heenan said. It w’ould also become a less viable proposition for the provision of public health care. “In this situation, social need, rather than economic costs, should be the criterion.”