This Kaupapa Māori-framed cohort analysis of New Zealand public hospital maternal data linked to infant data included 54,980 births over the time period from 1995 to 2009. The primary outcome was the rate of hospitalisation for respiratory disease in the first year of life. Risk factors that were independently associated with hospitalisation included low maternal socioeconomic status (rate ratio, 1.33), smoking (1.3), parity (2.77), preterm birth (3.14; 30 vs 40 weeks), but not breastfeeding (0.99). In analyses that adjusted for risk factors, respiratory hospitalisations remained highest among infants of young Māori women (rate ratio, 1.93 at age 22.5 years) and Pacific women across all maternal age groups (rate ratios, 2.43 to 2.55), compared with infants of European women.
