Health outcomes of children in state care in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Abstract

This study aims to provide an overview of the association between being in the custody of the chief executive of Oranga Tamariki (the child welfare agency of the New Zealand (NZ) government) and all-cause hospitalisation and mortality. This was a national retrospective cohort study using linked administrative data from the Integrated Data Infrastructure. Data were obtained for all 0-17 year-olds living in NZ on 31 December 2013. In-care status was ascertained at this point. Outcomes of all-cause hospitalisation and all-cause mortality were assessed between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2018. Adjusted models incorporated age, sex, ethnicity, level of socioeconomic deprivation and rural/urban status. There were 4650 in-care children and 1 009 377 not-in-care children in NZ on 31 December 2013. Of those in care, 54% were male, 42% lived in the most deprived areas and 63% identified as Māori. Adjusted models showed that in-care children were 1.32 (95% CI 1.27-1.38) times more likely to be hospitalised than not-in-care children and 3.64 (95% CI 2.47-5.40) times more likely to die. This cohort study highlights that the care and protection system prior to 2018 was not preventing children in its care from experiencing severe adverse outcomes. Overseas research has previously been relied on when making practice and policy decisions around child care and protection in NZ, so this research will provide valuable insight into best practice in an NZ context.