682 Results

  • Why do so many fear the bicycle?

    … given most commonly for not riding a bike on the road in New Zealand. In this blog, I summarise a paper we have … quantifying the risk of cycling injury. We found it to be low compared to other activites that New Zealanders … bike is shunted, literally, to the side of the road), and how this might be changed.   “It is too dangerous” is the …
    Briefing

  • Parliamentary voting for smokefree over two decades: Implications for future progress

    … Summary  The recent repeal of a key law to reduce the enormous health and economic burden from tobacco in Aotearoa NZ is a health, health equity, and economic … of tobacco control. A more detailed analysis would cover how political parties interact with the tobacco and vaping …
    Briefing

  • The need for an updated strategic approach to Covid-19 control in Aotearoa NZ

    … The NZ Government appears to have drifted into an unclear strategic approach to Covid-19 control. In this blog we outline one potential way forward: a regional … Details Northland “Regional elimination” To maximise long-term success the border with Auckland needs to be …
    Briefing

  • Smoking prevalence and trends: important findings from the 2023-24 New Zealand Health Survey

    … 2023/2024 were released on 19 November. For the first time in a decade, the prevalence of daily smoking did not decline … below 5% for all population groups, is very unlikely to be achieved.  Unless there are dramatic falls in smoking … 17 and 18 to 24 year olds, where there had previously been long-standing declining trends (Figure 4 and Table 1A). Data …
    Briefing

  • Using the CovidCard to enhance protection from COVID-19 at the NZ border

    … guests in quarantine and isolation facilities. We discuss how this is a promising move that should facilitate further … sized device that uses low-energy Bluetooth technology to communicate with other proximal devices (see Figure). All … to minimise the numbers of infected people getting on flights to New Zealand (while retaining quarantine and …
    Briefing

  • Politicians in Aotearoa NZ live longer than other Kiwis and the gap keeps widening

    … A just published study examined the lifespan of politicians in 11 high-income democratic countries – including Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ). The NZ politicians were found to live at least 5 years longer than the general NZ … inequalities 8 9 and these have been described over very long periods of time. 10 11 In 2013 there was a Māori vs …
    Briefing

  • Mortality declines in Aotearoa NZ during the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic

    … first 2 years of the pandemic and there has also been time to prepare the country for the current Omicron wave.     Over … . The measure is defined as the ‘difference between how many people died during the pandemic, from any cause, and … now debunked strategy that assumed infection would provide long-lasting natural immunity. For the UK, much like the USA, …
    Briefing

  • Will liberalising nicotine availability increase quitting?

    … Do the New Zealand (NZ) Government’s proposed changes to liberalise the e-cigarette market set out a robust process … selling a product that will kill two in three of its long-term users (2). This situation is clearly not compatible … and rewarding experiences may be crucial in determining how easily smokers find they can replace smoking with vaping. …
    Briefing

  • Evidence for free school lunches: The bigger picture benefits

    … Education, David Seymour, has claimed there is no evidence to support Ka Ora, Ka Ako, the Healthy School Lunch Programme … to reduce spending by half. The programme received $323.4m in 2023 and fed more than 230,000 learners in 998 schools. In … attendance have not yet been detected, a study on the long-term impact of universal primary school lunch provision …
    Briefing

  • NZ’s Quitline Service is value-for-money: But how does it compare with other tobacco control actions in a league table?

    … NZ’s Quitline service (including its associated promotion in the mass media). The study found that this intervention package is likely to be an effective means to generate health gain, address … per the successful “It’s About Whanau” campaign (7-9). But how does this compare with other options? Although the …
    Briefing

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Public Health Expert Briefing (ISSN 2816-1203)