Ethnic disparities in infectious disease hospitalisations in the first year of life in New Zealand

Aim Infectious disease (ID) hospitalisation rates are increasing in New Zealand (NZ), especially in pre‐school children, and Māori and Pacific people. We aimed to identify risk factors for ID hospitalisation in infancy within a birth cohort of NZ children, and to identify differences in risk factors between ethnic groups. Methods We investigated an established cohort of 6846 NZ children, born in 2009–2010, with linkage to a national data set of hospitalisations. We used multivariable logistic regression to obtain odds ratios (OR) for factors associated with ID hospitalisation in the first year of life, firstly for all children, and then separately for Māori or Pacific children. Results In the whole cohort, factors associated with ID hospitalisation were Māori (OR: 1.49, 95% CI: 1.17–1.89) or Pacific (2.51; 2.00–3.15) versus European maternal ethnicity, male gender (1.32; 1.13–1.55), low birthweight (1.94, 1.39–2.66), exclusive breastfeeding for