The Tokelau Island Migrant Study

This study was established to test certain specific hypotheses regarding the process of adaptation of atoll-dwelling Polynesian migrants moving from the Tokelau Islands to New Zealand. The collection of demographic, ideological, sociological and medical data on migrants from the Tokelaus and those on their home islands provides the data base for the study. Two sets of results are presented in the present paper: firstly, those dealing with the characteristics as demonstrated in the 1968 baseline studies of the pre-migrants who were subsequently to migrate between 1968 and 1973 and the non-migrants who have remained on their home islands; secondly, the baseline data for the total island population on the Tokelaus in 1968. This includes heights, weights, skinfolds, blood pressures, cholesterols, triglycerides, uric acids, casual urinary electrolytes, 24 hour urine volumes, electrolyte and uric acid outputs. The population showed a minor increase in blood pressure with age, a considerable degree of hyperuricaemia, and cholesterol levels that are significantly higher than observed previously in a population of atoll-dwellers on Pukapuka in the Northern Cook Islands. Triglyceride levels and 24 hour urinary sodium output are low. This represents the baseline from which migrants move into New Zealand, and further work is being carried out on the total population in the Tokelaus and in New Zealand to document in a longitudinal way the changes resulting from the migration.