Public Health Expert

Featured image: Red Meat & Processed Meat: Summarising the Public Health Issues

Red Meat & Processed Meat: Summarising the Public Health Issues

Public Health Expert • Nov 05, 2015

Dr Cristina Cleghorn, Associate Professor Nick Wilson, Professor Tony Blakely This blog was triggered by the recent highly publicised review on the cancer risk from processed meat and red meat. Here we briefly look at this topic and also take a wider perspective on other aspects of meat consumption on human health and the environment, and risk communication.   The … Read More

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Featured image: Can CT screening for lung cancer in New Zealand be cost-effective?

Can CT screening for lung cancer in New Zealand be cost-effective?

Public Health Expert • Sep 28, 2015

Dr Richard Jaine, Dr Nisha Nair and Professor Tony Blakely There is now strong evidence that screening for lung cancer with low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) scans is effective at reducing lung cancer mortality. So why aren’t countries rushing to introduce a screening programme? Because there is still doubt about its cost-effectiveness. In this blog, we discuss the uncertainties and suggest … Read More

Featured image: Calculating cardiovascular risk with online calculators – scope for improvement?

Calculating cardiovascular risk with online calculators – scope for improvement?

Public Health Expert • Sep 21, 2015

Associate Professor Nick Wilson, Dr Nhung Nghiem, Professor Tony Blakely, Professor Rod Jackson It is now possible to readily estimate individual risk of future cardiovascular events with a large number of online calculators – including a NZ-specific calculator that has been available for some years (“Know Your Numbers”). In this blog we consider if such risk calculators could be improved … Read More

Featured image: A co-regulatory approach to protecting children from junk food marketing

A co-regulatory approach to protecting children from junk food marketing

Public Health Expert • Sep 09, 2015

Amanda Wood, PhD candidate, University of Auckland The Health Minister is currently deciding how to best address children’s poor health due to diet-related diseases. It is a good time to reflect not only on the content of those approaches, but also the regulatory frameworks for those approaches. This blog explores a co-regulatory approach that could be applied to the strengthening … Read More

Featured image: Smartphone apps for weight loss and smoking cessation

Smartphone apps for weight loss and smoking cessation

Public Health Expert • Sep 07, 2015

Associate Professor Nick Wilson, Dr Christine Cleghorn, William Leung, Dr Osman David Mansoor Are smartphone apps for weight loss and smoking cessation well-designed? We were involved in a study published in last Friday’s NZ Medical Journal that tried to answer that question from a NZ public health perspective. In this blog we discuss what we found and its implications for … Read More

Featured image: Living longer, living healthier? Life expectancy in New Zealand

Living longer, living healthier? Life expectancy in New Zealand

Public Health Expert • Aug 31, 2015

Professor Tony Blakely and Professor Alistair Woodward In 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 … Read More

Featured image: Soft drink taxes and public health: Lessons from the Pacific & Mexico

Soft drink taxes and public health: Lessons from the Pacific & Mexico

Public Health Expert • Aug 18, 2015

Dr Andrea McDonald There 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. Read More

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