Lay summary
Rates of rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease are both diseases of developing nations. They are also particularly prevalent among Pacific Island nations. Being a developed country, New Zealand has astounding rates of rheumatic fever especially amongst the Pacific population. In this study, I will be looking at the compliance rates of patients with acute rheumatic fever to their antibiotic injections. These injections are supposed to prevent the recurrence of future episodes of rheumatic fever. Multiple episodes can in fact fast track the progression onto rheumatic heart disease which has dire outcomes. Many factors affect rates of compliance such as age, gender and location. I will analyse patient data on compliance and try to look at which variables are associated with good and bad compliance rates.