Indigenous voices on measuring and valuing health states

Abstract

The philosophical assumptions that underpin the way in which health states are valued within economic measures of health are rarely made explicit and fail to capture the experiences of Indigenous peoples. Within a Kaupapa Māori theoretical paradigm, in-depth interviews were conducted with six Māori key informants who had cared for whānau (family) members through illness to give voice to dimensions of health and illness that Western economic measures of health fail to capture. An Indigenous measure of health needs to consider the individual within the context of the collective and the environment that they are connected to. Economic measures of health are widely used to inform decisions about resource allocation that have significant impacts on Indigenous health outcomes. This article sets out to start a conversation around what an Indigenous measure of health might look like and how it might value key dimensions of health.