The ASMA report found the decline was costing the country $400 million in preventable hospital costs, and between $2 and $8 billion in social costs. Photo: Unsplash
A new report says the health of New Zealanders is declining, and it is coming at a hefty cost.
The report, released by the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMA), showed working age people reporting excellent health almost halved between 2011 and 2024, while psychological distress had increased among all adults.
The report analysed health data for those aged 15 and over between 2011/12 and 2023/24 gathered as part of the New Zealand Health Survey, then used Treasury values to estimate the resulting increased costs.
The annual Ministry of Health survey asks respondents to categorise themselves as having excellent, very good, good, fair or poor health.
The report found a significant drop (43 percent) in those reporting excellent health, alongside a similar increase (41 percent) in fair health.
The ASMA report found the decline was costing the country $400 million in preventable hospital costs, and between $2 and $8 billion in social costs.
Report author Andrea Black told Morning Report if the trend continued it could have a significant impact on the country's economy.
"Treasury recently produced its long term insight's briefing, and found that in 2065 there will be two people in paid work for every person over 65, but inherent in all those assumptions is that our workforce is as healthy and as productive as it is now.
"We extrapolated the findings over the past 12 years and if that continues we could end up with almost three times as many people in fair health as in excellent, and fair health are people who will be using the health system and be less productive."
The number of people reporting excellent health had dropped from an average of 20 percent to 11.5 percent, and the numbers reporting psychological distress increased among all adults under 65, with the most significant spike in the 15 to 24 year-old age group, which climbed from 5 percent to 23 percent, she said.
Meanwhile, unmet need for mental health services across all adults had more than doubled in the past five years, while unmet need for a GP due to wait time had more than doubled in the past three years to 25.7 percent in 2023/24. For women, unmet need due to wait time was now 30 percent, the report said.
Black said this left the health system to deal with increased, preventable hospital admissions due to a lack of access to primary care.
While the survey assessed self-reported health, there was research showing how people felt about their health correlated to outcomes, she said.
Furthermore, the impact on day to day functioning could be significant, with less than 1 percent of those with excellent and very good health reporting problems with daily activities, while the majority of those in the fair (65 percent) and poor (87 percent) categories said they had difficulties.
While the number of people reporting poor health had only increased slightly, Black said she believed that was because the health system was "keeping a floor under declining health".
Population increases meant the absolute number of those in poor health and in need of health services had increased regardless.
The report called on the government to address and reverse the decline by investing in housing, poverty reduction, education, improved nutrition and physical activity, as well as a stronger commitment to addressing the impact of tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy food.
It also called for more research into increased psychological distress, particularly among younger people, and on the unmet need for primary and secondary healthcare, including access to GP services and mental health care, which should be measured and reported on annually to inform long term health system planning.
The report said urgent measures were needed to retain and expand the medical and health workforce to meet the needs of an increasing population with declining health.
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