New Zealand Government funding for bariatric surgery has steadily increased over the last few years, in an effort to cope with the growing obesity epidemic. Marked ethnic disparities in obesity rates exist in New Zealand, with rates amongst Māori and Pacific people being 3 to 5 times higher compared with all other ethnic groups within New Zealand. These researchers analysed reported census and hospitalisation discharge data from Statistics NZ and the New Zealand Ministry of Health, in order to calculate rates of publicly-funded bariatric surgery by self-identified ethnicity amongst morbidly obese individuals who underwent bariatric procedures between June 2009 and July 2014. The paper reports that the average number of publicly-funded bariatric procedures performed per 1,000 morbidly obese patients over the 5-year study period was 3.0 for European, 1.4 for Māori and 0.7 for Pacific ethnicities.
