Objective: To compare the birth characteristics of the Growing Up in New Zealand cohort with those of all New Zealand (NZ) births over a similar time period, and to describe cohort alignment to current NZ births. Method:The Growing Up in New Zealand longitudinal study recruited 6,846 children from before birth via their pregnant mothers who were residing in the greater Auckland and Waikato regions during 2009 and 2010. Data were collected from mothers antenatally and six weeks after their expected delivery date, and from routine perinatal health records. These data were compared to Ministry of Health data for all births in NZ between 2007 and 2010. Results:The proportion of males and singleton births were not statistically different to national births. Compared to national births fewer of the cohort children were born low birth weight (4.9% vs. 6.1%, p<0.0001) or preterm (6.4% vs. 7.4%, p=0.001) and the cohort was expected to be more ethnically diverse than national births. Conclusion:Birth parameters for the cohort were generally closely aligned to all NZ births in 2007-2010. Some statistically significant differences reflected small absolute differences, attributable in some part to cohort recruitment requiring survival to six weeks post expected delivery. Implications:The explicit documentation of the alignment of the cohort to national data provides assurance that the study is well placed to deliver findings that can inform policy development relevant to the diversity of the contemporary NZ child population.

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Background: New Zealand's Immunisation Programme is an important pillar in the war against COVID-19, making high vaccine uptake essential. This study sought to: (1) identify potential vaccine uptake rates among New Zealanders prior to programme rollout; (2) understand reasons for unlikelihood/likelihood of vaccine uptake; and, (3) explore sociodemographic differences in risk of and reasons for vaccine hesitancy. Methods: Data were collected in March 2021 ( n = 1,284) via a web-based survey. Respondents were a diverse sample of New Zealanders who were part of a large, pre-existing social research sampling frame. Multinomial and logit regressions were estimated to examine sociodemographic predictors of vaccine hesitancy and reasons for likelihood/hesitancy. Findings: Overall, 70% reported they would likely take the vaccine once available (i.e., very likely or somewhat likely). Being younger and less educated were correlated with greater vaccine hesitancy risk (i.e., very unlikely, somewhat likely, or unsure). Women were more likely than men to say they were unsure ( Relative Risk Ratio = 1.60) vs. either likely or unlikely and to identify concerns regarding personal health, such as potential side effects, as a reason. Men identified concerns surrounding trust in vaccines and the perceived exaggerated risk of COVID-19 to them and the population. Interpretation: Although a majority intend to take the COVID-19 vaccine once available, a sizeable minority who were more likely to be young, female, and less educated, were unsure about or unlikely to get the vaccine, primarily due to perceptions of unknown future side effects. Ethnicity was not statistically associated with vaccine hesitancy, suggesting that public health effort s aimed at increasing vaccine acceptance among M āori and Pacific peoples-subgroups most at-risk of COVID-19 infection and morbidity-should focus on inequities in health care access to increase uptake.

Background Interpersonal discrimination experience has been associated with adverse birth outcomes. Limited research has evaluated this relationship within multicultural contexts outside the United States where the nature and salience of discrimination experiences may differ. Such research is important in order to help identify protective and risk factors that may mediate the relationship between discrimination experience and adverse birth outcomes. Methods Evaluated the relationship between perceived discrimination, as measured in pregnancy, with birth weight and gestation length among Māori, Pacific, and Asian women from Aotearoa New Zealand (N = 1653). Results Thirty percent of the sample reported some type of unfair treatment that they attributed to their ethnicity. For Māori women specifically, unfair treatment at work (β = − 243 g) and in acquiring housing (β = − 146 g) were associated with lower birth weight when compared to Māori women not experiencing these types of discrimination, while an ethnically motivated physical attack (β = − 1.06 week), and unfair treatment in the workplace (β = − 0.95 week), in the criminal justice system (β = − 0.55 week), or in banking (β = − 0.73 week) were associated with significantly shorter gestation. Conclusions Despite a high prevalence of discrimination experience among women from all ethnic groups, discrimination experience was a strong predictor of lower birth weight and shorter gestation length among indigenous Māori women only. Additional research is needed to better understand the risk and protective factors that may moderate the relationship between discrimination experience and adverse birth outcomes among women from different ethnic groups.

e Group A streptococcus (GAS; Streptococcus pyogenes) is a Gram-positive human pathogen that causes a broad range of diseases ranging from acute pharyngitis to the poststreptococcal sequelae of acute rheumatic fever. GAS pili are highly diverse, long protein polymers that extend from the cell surface. They have multiple roles in infection and are promising candidates for vaccine development. This study describes the structure of the T6 backbone pilin (BP; Lancefield T-antigen) from the important M6 serotype. The structure reveals a modular arrangement of three tandem immunoglobulin-like domains, two with internal isopeptide bonds. The T6 pilin lysine, essential for polymerization, is located in a novel VAKS motif that is structurally homologous to the canonical YPKN pilin lysine in other three-and four-domain Gram-positive pilins. The T6 structure also highlights a conserved pilin core whose surface is decorated with highly variable loops and extensions. Comparison to other Gram-positive BPs shows that many of the largest variable extensions are found in conserved locations. Studies with sera from patients diagnosed with GAS-associated acute rheumatic fever showed that each of the three T6 domains, and the largest of the variable extensions (V8), are targeted by IgG during infection in vivo. Although the GAS BP show large variations in size and sequence, the modular nature of the pilus proteins revealed by the T6 structure may aid the future design of a pilus-based vaccine.