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Yearly Archives: 2017

Is it time to pilot a test and treat programme for reducing the stomach cancer burden and inequalities in NZ?

Tuesday, April 18th, 2017 | hensa32p | No Comments

Dr Andrea Teng, Dr Melissa McLeod, Professor Tony Blakely, Professor Nick Wilson 

We have just published a modelling study on stomach cancer prevention in the international journal BMC Infectious Diseases (1). This blog briefly examines how a possible population screening programme, that tests and treats for infection by the bacteria Helicobacter pylori in the stomach, may be a cost-effective way to reduce the stomach cancer burden and ethnic inequalities in stomach cancer incidence and mortality in New Zealand.

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What does art have to do with public health, and how can they work together?

Monday, April 10th, 2017 | Kate Sloane | No Comments

Jenny Ombler, Dr Sarah Donovan (University of Otago, Wellington)

Last month was the first time that the Public Health Summer School (University of Otago, Wellington) has considered art, and its relationship to public health. The Symposium featured artists, arts academics, an architect, and public health practitioners and academics. In this blog we consider some of the issues raised and build the case for ongoing collaborations between the arts and public health. So what was the point of this eclectic gathering?

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BMI keeps on going up – and reflections on the Diabesity Symposium

Friday, March 24th, 2017 | Kate Sloane | No Comments

Professor Tony Blakely, Dr Kirsten Coppell, Dr Cristina Cleghorn, Dr Andrea Teng

Is body mass index (BMI) relentlessly increasing in NZ, or plateauing?

In this blog we present trends in BMI by ethnicity in NZ going back to the 1980s. Over the last four decades the annual increase in BMI is linear, relentless increasing; no sign of a plateau, yet. Given this trend, The Diabesity Crisis symposium just held in Auckland, under the auspices of the Better Start and Healthier Lives National Science Challenges and Edgar Diabetes and Obesity Research seems aptly named. What are the forthcoming research and policy priorities?

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Why do so many fear the bicycle?

Tuesday, March 14th, 2017 | Kate Sloane | 7 Comments

Prof Alistair Woodward, Auckland University

“It is too dangerous.” This is the reason given most commonly for not riding a bike on the road in New Zealand. In this blog, I summarise a paper we have just published quantifying the risk of cycling injury. We found it to be low compared to other activites that New Zealanders commonly engage in. For example, riding a bike to a rugby game is roughly 500 times safer than playing the game. I conclude by examining why cycling is so marginalised (the bike is shunted, literally, to the side of the road), and how this might be changed.

Source: New Zealand Transport Agency

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The marked decline of sudden mass fatality events in NZ (1900 to 2015)

Wednesday, March 1st, 2017 | Kate Sloane | 1 Comment

Professor Nick Wilson and Associate Professor George Thomson

Our recently published study on sudden mass fatality events in NZ (10+ deaths per event) found that the occurrence and mortality burden of these events has declined over time. In this blog we consider possible reasons for this trend and make suggestions for improving the knowledge base around these events.

Wahine sinking in 1968, Source: Civil Defence website photo library

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