Premature mortality resilience and wellbeing within urban Māori communities

- This paper explored health resilience among urban New Zealand Māori.
- Resilient urban neighborhoods were defined as having unexpectedly low mortality.
- Wellbeing indicators were correlated with a Māori resiliency (Māori_RINZ) index.
- Exposure to crime was the only variable associated with lower resilience.
- Better indicators of Māori wellbeing need to be developed.

Māori (the indigenous peoples of Aotearoa New Zealand) experience of colonisation has negatively affected access to many of the resources (e.g. income, adequate housing) that enable health and well-being. However Māori have actively responded to the challenges they have faced. With the majority of the Māori population now living in urban settings this exploratory study aimed to understand factors contributing to mortality resilience despite exposure to socio-economic adversity with reference to Māori well-being. Resilient urban neighborhoods were defined as those that had lower than expected premature mortality among Māori residents despite high levels of socio-economic adversity. Selected resilience indicators theoretically linked to a Māori well-being framework were correlated with the novel Māori_RINZ resilience index. Of the selected indicators, only exposure to crime showed a clear gradient across the resilience index as predicted by the Māori well-being framework. Future research is needed as unclear trends for other indicators may reflect limitations in the indicators used or the need to develop a more comprehensive measure of well-being.