Does mortality vary between Pacific groups in New Zealand? Estimating Samoan, Cook Island Maori, Tongan, and Niuean mortality rates using hierarchical Bayesian modelling

Abstract

Background: Pacific mortality rates are traditionally presented for all Pacific people combined, yet there is likely heterogeneity between separate Pacific ethnic groups. We aimed to determine mortality rates for Samoan, Cook Island Māori, Tongan, and Niuean ethnic groups (living in New Zealand). Methods: We used New Zealand Census-Mortality Study (NZCMS) data for 2001-04, for 380,000 person years of follow-up of 0-74 year olds in the 2001-04 cohort for which there was complete data on sex, age, ethnicity (total counts), natality, and household income. Given sparse data, we used hierarchical Bayesian (HB) regression modelling, with: a prior covariate structure specified for sex, age, natalit..