Gout is associated with various co-morbidities including insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Gout and type 2 diabetes are strongly linked to the individual components of metabolic syndrome. There may be shared pathogenic pathways between gout and type 2 diabetes in which insulin resistance, obesity, hypertension and hyperuricaemia play a central role.Genetic and environmental factors...

Introduction: Oral and oropharyngeal cancer is the sixth most common cancer in the world. The most common type of cancer occurring in the oral and oropharyngeal area is oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). For the purposes of this thesis oral squamous cell carcinoma has been defined as a malignant epithelial neoplasm of the tongue, floor...

In childhood environmental and dietary exposure to toxic and non-toxic elements may affect development and growth. The elemental concentrations of scalp hair and toenails may reflect chemical uptake via the diet, or environment. Very little is known about the relationship between elemental concentrations in scalp hair and toenails and behavioural and growth characteristics of children...

Background: Rheumatic fever (RF) and its sequela rheumatic heart disease (RHD) occur at unusually high levels in New Zealand. A disease of social deprivation, RF now almost exclusively affects Māori and Pacific peoples. In 2011, the Government announced a goal to reduce the incidence of RF by two-thirds to 1.4 per 100,000 and make RF...

Background: Genital Chlamydia trachomatis infections are the most common bacterial sexually transmitted diseases in the world and place a huge burden on healthcare resources. Knowledge on the epidemiology of Chlamydia trachomatis infections and reproductive health of women in Samoa and the Pacific in general is very limited. The current knowledge is limited to a small...