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Obesity at last on Government agenda, but will Healthy Families NZ be good enough ?

Friday, February 7th, 2014 | Kate Sloane | 1 Comment

Professor Boyd Swinburn, Professor of Population Nutrition and Global Health, University of Auckland, and, Co-Director, WHO Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention, Deakin University

The Government announced the Healthy Families NZ initiative to tackle our escalating obesity crisis. It will be based on Healthy Together Victoria (HTV) which the Health Minister, Tony Ryall, visited on a recent trip to Australia. Although no details are available, it is pertinent to ask – what is HTV, how could it be adapted for New Zealand, and will it work?

The launch of Healthy Together Victoria: Victorian Minister for Health, Hon David Davis, Prof Boyd Swinburn, Dr Alan Shiell, CEO of the Centre for Excellence in Innovation and Prevention Systems which is evaluating HTV.

The launch of Healthy Together Victoria: Victorian Minister for Health, Hon David Davis, Prof Boyd Swinburn, Dr Alan Shiell, CEO of the Centre for Excellence in Innovation and Prevention Systems which is evaluating HTV.

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Market deregulation → ↑ fast food consumption → ↑ obesity. Clever international study that includes NZ data

Wednesday, February 5th, 2014 | | No Comments

Professor Tony Blakely.

A clever study just published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization has analyzed how changes in fast food transactions per capita within 25 high-income countries was associated with changes in body mass index (BMI).  The change-change analysis is important, as it addresses confounding bias that plagues many studies.  The study found that an increase of 10 fast food purchases per person per year is associated with increases in BMI by 0.33 units (or 1 kg for an average height person).  Of note, the increase of 10 fast food purchases per person per year was exactly that observed for NZ during the 1999 to 2008 period covered by this study. Continue reading →

Thoughts on NZ Adopting an Aussie Community Health Programme … and Forthcoming Nutrition Policy Events

Tuesday, February 4th, 2014 | | 2 Comments

Professor Tony Blakely and Associate Professor Nick Wilson

Late last year Health Minister Tony Ryall visited Victoria, Australia, to examine their “Healthy Together Victoria” programme. This week, the Prime Minister announced that NZ will adopt this programme, and it will be known as “Healthy Families New Zealand”. This blog post gives a high level overview of this initiative and anticipates a series of four forthcoming blog posts here at Public Health Expert.

The Australian programme has healthy nutrition as a large focus, but it also extends to include alcohol, physical activity and smoking. Actually, large chunks of it sound like the old Health Eating – Healthy Action programme.

“The Healthy Together Victoria” programme looks a bit like old “Healthy Eating – Healthy Action” programme in New Zealand.

“The Healthy Together Victoria” programme looks a bit like old “Healthy Eating – Healthy Action” programme in New Zealand.

HEHA

 

 

 

 

 

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Glass half full: Alcohol’s health benefits for cardiovascular disease still controversial, and likely vary by context

Tuesday, January 21st, 2014 | Kate Sloane | 4 Comments

Professor Tony Blakely and Associate Professor Nick Wilson

It is ‘well known’ that moderate amounts of alcohol are beneficial to cardiovascular health.  But actually in research circles this ‘fact’ is hotly contested. In this blog we will overview the currently dominant understanding of a ‘J-shape’ association of alcohol and death rates. Then we look at a recent (and likely seminal) just published study of 400,000 European adults followed up for an average 13 years that reports a seemingly J-shape association – but which might actually be due to bias according to the authors.

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Good news on declining smoking rates, especially for Māori. Is it credible? What next?

Tuesday, December 10th, 2013 | Nick Wilson | 3 Comments

Professor Tony Blakely, Associate Professor Nick Wilson

Smoking rates have fallen in the 2013 Census compared to the 2006 Census (from 20.7% to 15.1% in adults aged 15+). The results generally fit with other evidence and are good news for health in NZ. And late today Tariana Turia has announced that rates for Māori have fallen nearly 10 percentage points from 2006 to 2013, or from 42.2% to 32.7%.  Which is fantastic news.

This blog considers the results in more detail (for all ethnic groups combined, as Māori data is not yet on the Statistics NZ website), and asks what else could be done to accelerate progress towards a smokefree nation.

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