Likely lifetimes take leap in Bay

Hawke's Bay life expectancy has taken the biggest jump in the country, new data show.

Statistics New Zealand records show the life expectancy for a male born in Hawke's Bay between 2012 and 2014 was 78.6 years - an increase of 1.5 years on males born between 2005 and 2007.

Meanwhile, the life expectancy of females born in Hawke's Bay between 2012 and 2014 was 82.4 years - an increase of 1.2 years on 2005-2007.

Hawke's Bay DHB director of population health Caroline McElnay said she was "pleasantly surprised" by the results.

"It's great to see the increases," she said.

"The rate of people dying from heart disease has decreased, which has had a big impact.

"Fifty per cent of that is due to better preventive care, such as less smoking and better management of blood pressure, and 50 per cent of it is due to better treatment.

"The increase shows things are going in the right direction, which is what we want to see."

Hawke's Bay life expectancy was still in the lower quartile of regions, however.

The gap between the life expectancy of Maori and non-Maori also remained significant, with non-Maori males born between 2012 and 2014 expected to live 8.2 years longer than Maori males, and non-Maori females expected to live 7.7 years longer than Maori females.

"The gap reduced from 2005-2007, which is exactly what we want, but we remain concerned about the difference," Dr McElnay said.

"We know there are too many Maori and Pacific young people leaving school with no education and no employment, and we know that, though there's a definite reduction in smoking rates, there's still a higher portion of Maori smoking."

In a recently released DHB report on health equity, Maori women were found to be the heaviest smokers in Hawke's Bay, as they were disenfranchised from health and employment.

The Government has set DHBs a target of less than a 5 per cent prevalence of smokers by 2025. The Hawke's Bay rate is 18 per cent, which is higher than the national average.

Dr McElnay said Hawke's Bay agencies, councils and the DHB were working together to improve preventive health measures across the board.

Nationally, life expectancy at birth for females was 83.2 years compared with 79.5 years for males in the 2012-14 period. Life expectancy increased in all regions since the life tables were prepared in 2005-07.

The gap between Maori and non-Maori life expectancy at birth had decreased in all regions since the last life tables.

However, nationally in 2012-14, Maori were still expected to live 7.1 years fewer than non-Maori.

Professor of public health at Otago University, Tony Blakely, said it was curious Maori compared with non-Maori gaps in life expectancy were highest in those areas with the greatest density of Maori population, such as Northland and Waikato. NZME