Representation of Asian Ethnic Sub-Groups in Aotearoa’s Regulated Health Workforce Pre-Registration Students

Abstract

Aim: To provide a socio-demographic profile of Asian students enrolled in their first year of a health professional programme in polytechnics and universities in Aotearoa New Zealand and to explore differences in enrolment rates (ERs) within Asian sub-groups and by socio-economic deprivation, citizenship status, urban/rural location and gender.

Methods: Ethnic group/sub-group and socio-demographic characteristics of students enrolling within 21 health professional programmes were collected and averaged over 5 years (2016–2020). Age-and ethnicity-matched denominator data from the 2018 Census were used to calculate yearly ERs and ratios (ERR) using generalised linear modelling with the European ethnic group as the reference.

Results: The overall ER for Asian students was higher than for Europeans (ERs [95% confidence interval: 280 [269–292] per 100,000 population aged 18–29 per year vs 149 [144–154]). However, Indian, Chinese and Southeast Asian students were under-represented in occupational therapy (ERR: 0.33–0.67, p=<0.017), midwifery (ERR: 0.46–0.61, p=<0.002) and paramedicine (ERR: 0.23–0.29, p<0.001). There were proportionately fewer female Asian students compared with European students (68% vs 82%, p<0.001).

Conclusion: This novel research provides detailed information on Asian sub-group representation in health professional programmes in Aotearoa. Taken in the context of known health needs of different Asian sub-groups, these data may facilitate health workforce planning and targeted policies within health professional programmes in order to better match the health workforce to population health needs.