Public Health Expert

A new online calculator for estimating how much a society might spend on life-saving interventions

Public Health Expert • Jul 22, 2015

By the BODE3 Programme Team* In this blog we describe an online calculator we developed to estimate the maximum investment society might consider spending on life-saving health interventions, while remaining cost-effective. For NZ, the amounts generated by this calculator vary … Continue reading → … Read More

Bowel cancer screening – An interesting new US study and thoughts about the NZ situation

Public Health Expert • Jun 29, 2015

Professor Tony Blakely, Associate Professor Diana Sarfati In this blog post we look at a new modelling study on bowel cancer screening, published in a top US journal (JAMA). We discuss the cost-effectiveness of such screening and consider the current … Continue reading → … Read More

Flooding, public health – and the need for more emphasis on prevention

Public Health Expert • Jun 24, 2015

Nick Wilson, George Thomson, Paul Blaschke (University of Otago, Wellington) Recent flooding events in New Zealand should make us think about the adverse public health and economic impacts. This blog post considers these issues, and suggests that there may be scope for further preventive action by central and local government so as to better reduce the health and economic impacts … Read More

Potential new regulatory options for e-cigarettes/ANDS in NZ

Public Health Expert • May 25, 2015

By a group of nine academic tobacco/nicotine researchers* E-cigarette usage is growing in NZ and around the world but the scientific evidence-base regarding the benefits and risks of these types of products remains uncertain. The health-based policy experience is also … Continue reading → … Read More

Faster mortality decline – slower population ageing. How could this be?

Public Health Expert • May 21, 2015

Professor Alistair Woodward and Professor Tony Blakely Have you sat in a meeting recently, or listened to the radio, where someone is invoking the aging population as a harbringer of doom and gloom due to the tsunami of older people … Continue reading → … Read More

The Smokefree 2025 goal is in danger of receding – will the Ministry of Health’s ‘realignment’ get it back on track?

Public Health Expert • May 18, 2015

Professors Richard Edwards, Chris Cunningham, and Janet Hoek; Associate Professors George Thomson and Nick Wilson The Ministry of Health proposes realigning tobacco control services to progress New Zealand’s Smokefree 2025 goal. However, will a ‘realignment’ of existing services ensure the … Continue reading → … 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 → … Read More

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 → … Read More

Highlights of the World Conference on Tobacco or Health

Public Health Expert • Apr 17, 2015

Professor Richard Edwards, Professor Robert Beaglehole and Stephanie Erick The 16th World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCToH) has just been held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. In this blog post we describe some of the main themes and … Continue reading → … Read More

Public Health at the Movies: A Selection of 35 Top Movies

Public Health Expert • Apr 07, 2015

Associate Professor Nick Wilson, Dr Peter Gallagher We have assembled a collection of 35 high quality movies as part of public health teaching for medical students. In this blog post we detail the movies and reflect on some of the … Continue reading → … Read More

About Public Health Expert

Public Health Expert is the blog of University of Otago public health researchers who research everything from tobacco and alcohol to infectious diseases and obesity.

The views expressed on this blog are those of the author and do not reflect the views of the owners of SciBlogs.co.nz, the Science Media Centre or the Royal Society of New Zealand.

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