Living longer, living healthier? Latest Official Report on independent life expectancy in NZ

Monday, August 31st, 2015 | Kate Sloane | 1 Comment

Professor Tony Blakely and Professor Alistair Woodward

Independent Life Expectancy in NZIn this blog we review the latest update by the Ministry of Health on how much of NZers life expectancy can be expected to be in good health. The good news? We are both living longer, and living longer in good health. The bad news? According to this report, the percentage of our lives with some dependency due to poor health is increasing. And there are marked inequalities in healthy life expectancy. This sort of analysis, as hard as it is to get right, is important – as a society we do not want to just live longer, but live longer in good health. However, we have concerns about the accuracy of this Report, and critique it in this blog.

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What the Pacific & Mexico can tell us about soft drink taxes and public health

Tuesday, August 18th, 2015 | Kate Sloane | No Comments

Dr Andrea McDonald

Soft drinks blog picThere are many ways that taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) can be designed and implemented. These aspects can affect the likely impact on SSB consumption and health. This blog looks at a policy discussion document from the Pacific and explores some of the reasons SSB tax outcomes from Mexico appear to show positive reductions in SSB consumption.

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