Public Health Expert

Vaping very likely to improve health in NZ – but how does this compare with other options? - Public Health Expert
Mar 27, 2019 •
Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Frederieke Petrović-van der Deen, Dr Cristina Cleghorn, A/Prof Coral Gartner, Prof Tony Blakely Our just-published modelling study suggests that easier access to nicotine via vaping as a replacement for tobacco smoking, will improve the health of the NZ population. The estimated health gain is about the same as 10% per annum tobacco tax increases per year for 15 years, or a national colorectal cancer screening programme. Considering all sources of uncertainty, our study supports cautious liberalisation of nicotine-containing e-cigarettes – as NZ is doing. In this blog we discuss this new study and issues that policy-makers should consider to maximise the potential health gain – and minimise risks. Our joint NZ/Australian team used a computer simulation model to estimate the likely net health impact of liberalising access to e-cigarettes in NZ (relative to a … Read More

The health impacts of the First World War for NZ: A Review - Public Health Expert
Oct 30, 2018 •
Nick Wilson, George Thomson, Jennifer A Summers, Glyn Harper, Evan Roberts This blog summarises our just-published article on the mortality and morbidity impacts of the First World War on the NZ population. While much is known about the large health burden of this conflict (especially for the direct participants), there are still various knowledge gaps eg, for the health impacts on the home front. The ongoing digitalisation of all the military files and key data abstracted from them should make it easier for researchers to fill these knowledge gaps in coming years. According to the Roll-of-Honour dataset for NZ military forces in the First World War (WW1), the last NZ soldiers “killed in action” died on 7 November 1918, one hundred years ago this year of writing. They were Donald Stewart Kennedy (see photo below), Frank Gardner, and Andrew … Read More

Closing New Zealand’s Borders to Mitigate a Severe Pandemic has Merit - Public Health Expert
Aug 09, 2018 •
Dr Matt Boyd, Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Osman Mansoor & Prof Michael Baker Should an island nation like New Zealand close its borders in the face of a severe pandemic threat? In a SciBlogs post last year we argued ‘yes’. We have just published additional modelling that also comes to this conclusion. In a severe pandemic tens to hundreds of thousands of New Zealand lives could be lost, based on the plausible scenarios that we used. A timely and effective border closure could prevent this loss of life and health costs from illness. Such benefits would far outweigh the disruptions to the economy, including from a temporary end to tourism from international travellers. Now, in an improved and updated analysis, we find an even stronger case for border closure to mitigate the threat of a pandemic or novel catastrophic … Read More

Climate change and recent actions of NZ political parties - Public Health Expert
Sep 15, 2017 •
Prof Nick Wilson, Prof Richard Edwards, Dr Cristina Cleghorn, Prof Michael Baker, Dr Caroline Shaw, A/Prof Ralph Chapman, Prof Philippa Howden-Chapman The health organisation OraTaiao convened a group of experts to analyse the climate change policies of NZ political party policies. It gave the highest grade to the Green Party, then the Labour Party, and then The Opportunities Party (TOP). This blog takes a supplementary approach, looking at actual climate related actions taken in the last Parliamentary term (since late 2014). It suggests that relative to its power in the Parliament, the Green Party has done the best. The National Party has an overall poor performance grading – given the many opportunities it has had in Government. Voters who are asking “What is best for NZ society and the planet in the long-term?” may wish to put weight on … Read More

A Statue of Merit: Dr Margaret Cruickshank and the 1918 influenza pandemic - Public Health Expert
Sep 12, 2017 •
Nick Wilson, Ben Schrader, Geoff Rice, Christine Clement, George Thomson, Catharine Ferguson, Michael Baker Some statues are getting bad press at present – and rightly so for the Confederate military statues which represent the racist history of the Southern United States. But in this blog we briefly look at a particular New Zealand statue that we think characterises some of the best aspects of public monuments: the statue of Dr Margaret Cruickshank who died caring for patients during the 1918 influenza pandemic. Statues commemorating the racist Confederate leaders of the American Civil War are getting bad press at present in the USA and internationally. Some have been pulled down or officially removed following the uproar over the General Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville. The controversy has also started to involve some memorials to US doctors whose activities can … Read More
The allure of a Virtual Supermarket for public health nutrition research - Public Health Expert
May 11, 2015
Dr Wilma Waterlander, National Institute for Health Innovation – University of Auckland The Virtual Supermarket is a 3D computer model of a real supermarket that we started developing some years ago. When we first published on the Virtual Supermarket topic … Continue reading →
Reducing salt in food good for health and NZ’s health budget – New research - Public Health Expert
May 04, 2015 •
Associate Professor Nick Wilson, Dr Nhung Nghiem, Dr Cristina Cleghorn, Professor Tony Blakely In this blog post we report on a new study from the BODE3 Programme that suggests that strategies to reduce the dietary salt intake of New Zealanders … Continue reading →
Antiviral Stockpiles for Pandemic Preparedness: Time for a Careful Rethink? - Public Health Expert
May 12, 2014 •
Associate Professor Nick Wilson and Professor Michael Baker As part of influenza pandemic readiness, NZ has a 32 million dollar stockpile of antiviral drugs. But given recent evidence from a new Cochrane systematic review – NZ policymakers should probably now … Continue reading →
Should NZ spend relatively more health resources on improving men’s health? - Public Health Expert
Mar 13, 2014 •
Associate Professor Nick Wilson There is no doubt that NZ needs to keep addressing ethnic inequalities in health as an important priority. Nevertheless, gender inequalities may also be worth some consideration given that NZ men have lower life expectancy than … Continue reading →
6 teaspoons of sugar a day helps the diseases stay down, in a most challenging way - Public Health Expert
Mar 07, 2014 •
Tony Blakely, Nick Wilson Here comes the next big battle in nutrition: SUGAR. Yesterday, the World Health Organization put out their widely anticipated guidelines on sugar intake for consultation. In this blog, we review some of the underlying evidence on … Continue reading →