The impact of area-level socioeconomic status in childhood on mental health in adolescence and adulthood: A prospective birth cohort study in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Mental health conditions pose a significant public health challenge, and low area-level socioeconomic status (SES) is a potentially important upstream determinant. Childhood exposure might have influences on later-life mental health. This study, utilises data from the Christchurch Health and Development Study birth cohort, examining the impact of area-level SES trajectories in childhood (from birth to age 16) on mental health at age 16 and from age 18-40 years.

The role of social support in reducing the long-term burden of cumulative childhood adversity on adulthood internalising disorder.

Purpose: Previous research indicates that social support is protective for the mental health outcomes of exposure to childhood adversity. However, the impact of social support as a protective factor following exposure to cumulative childhood adversity is understudied with prospective longitudinal data. The aim of this present study was to examine how social support mediates the impact of cumulative exposure to childhood adversity on internalising disorder in adulthood.

Modified inverse propensity weighting method to alleviate estimation errors in the model with multiple endogenous variables.

Multiple mental health disorders affect on decisions of people. The disorders are also outcomes of other factors. Health studies commonly follow an inverse propensity weight (IPW) method to address estimation errors associated with the presence of one confounder or covariate number exceeding the recommended sample size.

Change in the food environment and measured adiposity in adulthood in the Christchurch Health and development birth cohort, Aotearoa, New Zealand: A birth cohort study.

This study investigated associations between change in the food environment and change in measured body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) in the Christchurch Health and Development Study (CHDS) birth cohort. Our findings suggest that cohort members who experienced the greatest proportional change towards better access to fast food outlets had the slightly larger increases in BMI and WC. Contrastingly, cohort members who experienced the greatest proportional change towards shorter distance and better access to supermarkets had slightly smaller increases in BMI and WC.

Inadequate sun protection practices lead to sunburn among New Zealanders.

Nil.

Just because you can…does not mean you should: an examination of efficacy and potential harms from non-prescribed supplements taken by members of the Christchurch Health and Development Study at age 40.

Nil.

Childhood maltreatment and the menopause transition in a cohort of midlife New Zealand women.

Objective: Knowledge surrounding the link between childhood adversity and reproductive outcomes at midlife is limited. The present study examined the relationship between childhood maltreatment (childhood sexual abuse [CSA], childhood physical punishment [CPP]), and menopause status at age 40.

Methods: Data were gathered from female members of the Christchurch Health and Development Study, a longitudinal birth cohort of 1,265 individuals (630 females) born in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1977.

Expanding the system: A brief psychosocial complex systems model of internalising disorder.

Background: The aetiology of internalising disorders remains poorly understood. Recently, a bottom-up network perspective has suggested mental disorders are best conceptualised as emergent systems, and may be explained by mapping systems of symptoms embedded within a complex biopsychosocial environment. Under this framework, the complex system in which internalising disorders are embedded remains poorly understood.

Past-year intimate partner violence perpetration among people with and without depression: an individual participant data (IPD) meta-mediation analysis.

Purpose: To investigate whether (1) depression is associated with increased risk of past-year intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration, disaggregated by sex, after controlling for potential confounders; (2) observed associations are mediated by alcohol misuse or past-year IPV victimisation.

Methods: Systematic review and individual participant data (IPD) meta-mediation analysis of general population surveys of participants aged 16 years or older, that were conducted in a high-income country setting, and measured mental disorder and IPV perpetration in the last 12 months.

Results: Four datasets contributed to meta-mediation analyses, with a combined sample of 12,679 participants.

Childhood anxious/withdrawn behaviour and later anxiety disorder: a network outcome analysis of a population cohort.

Background: Several previous studies have identified a continuity between childhood anxiety/withdrawal and anxiety disorder (AD) in later life. However, not all children with anxiety/withdrawal problems will experience an AD in later life. Previous studies have shown that the severity of childhood anxiety/withdrawal accounts for some of the variability in AD outcomes.

Parental use of physical punishment in a birth cohort.

Aim: To document the prevalence of child physical punishment by parents and associated predictors in the Christchurch Health and Development Study (CHDS) birth cohort over a 15-year period.

Method: A cohort of 1,265 CHDS individuals were followed from birth (1977) to age 40 years. At ages 25 (n=155), 30 (n=337), 35 (n=585) and 40 years (n=636), the cohort members with dependent children (<16 years of age) were interviewed about their use of child physical punishment in the past 12 months using the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scale.

Recruitment and retention of participants in longitudinal studies after a natural disaster.

Climate change and population growth will increase vulnerability to natural and human-made disasters or pandemics. Longitudinal research studies may be adversely impacted by a lack of access to study resources, inability to travel around the urban environment, reluctance of sample members to attend appointments, sample members moving residence and potentially also the destruction of research facilities. One of the key advantages of longitudinal research is the ability to assess associations between exposures and outcomes by limiting the influence of sample selection bias.

Investigating change in the food environment over 10 years in urban New Zealand: A longitudinal and nationwide geospatial study.

Background: While it is likely that changing food environments have contributed to the rise in obesity rates, very few studies have explored historical trends in the food environment with little, if any, consideration at a nationwide level. This longitudinal, nationwide, and geospatial study aims to examine change over time in proximity to food environments in all urban areas of New Zealand from 2005 to 2015.

Method: This study used high quality food outlet data by area-level deprivation within the three largest urban areas of Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington.

Childhood predictors of adult adiposity: findings from a longitudinal study.

Aims: The increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity has become a key challenge for New Zealand. The purpose of the present study was to examine childhood risk factors for adult adiposity in a longitudinal birth cohort.

Methods: Data were gathered from the Christchurch Health and Development Study (CHDS), a birth cohort of 1,265 children born in Christchurch in 1977.

Social Causation, Social Selection, or Common Determinants? Examining Competing Explanations for the Link Between Young Adult Unemployment and Nicotine Dependence.

Introduction: Unemployment has been related to smoking, yet the causal nature of the association is subject to continued debate. Social causation argues that unemployment triggers changes in smoking, whereas the social selection hypothesis proposes that pre-existing smoking behavior lowers the probability of maintaining employment. The present study tested these competing explanations while accounting for another alternative explanation-common liability.

Screening for High Risk of Sleep Apnea in an Ambulatory Care Setting in Saudi Arabia.

Sleep apnea is a potentially serious but under-diagnosed sleep disorder. Saudi Arabia has a high prevalence of hypertension, diabetes, obesity, and smoking, which are all major risk factors for sleep apnea. However, few studies report screening for sleep apnea in Saudi Arabia.

Childhood predictors of adult adiposity: findings from a longitudinal study.

Aims: The increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity has become a key challenge for New Zealand. The purpose of the present study was to examine childhood risk factors for adult adiposity in a longitudinal birth cohort.

Methods: Data were gathered from the Christchurch Health and Development Study (CHDS), a birth cohort of 1,265 children born in Christchurch in 1977.

Epidemiological foundations for the insurance hypothesis: Methodological considerations.

Nettle et al. evaluate evidence for the insurance hypothesis, which links obesity with the perception of food scarcity. Epidemiological findings in this area have generally been weak and inconsistent.

Unintended Sunburn: A Potential Target for Sun Protection Messages.

New Zealand (NZ) has the highest melanoma incidence rate in the world. Primary prevention efforts focus on reducing sunburn incidence and increasing sun protective practices in the population. However, sunburn from excessive ultraviolet radiation (UVR) remains common.

Modelling possible causality in the associations between unemployment, cannabis use, and alcohol misuse.

Background: There has been considerable interest in the extent to which substance use and unemployment may be related, particularly the causal pathways that may be involved in these associations. It has been argued that these associations may reflect social causation, in which unemployment influences substance use, or that they may reflect social selection, in which substance use increases the risk of becoming and remaining unemployed. The present study sought to test these competing explanations.

Life-stress and reactivity by gender in a longitudinal birth cohort at 30 and 35 years.

Purpose: Previous literature has shown gender differences in reactivity to stressful life events. However, it is unclear whether gender differences in stress reactivity are consistent across a series of life event domains among longitudinal adult sample populations.

Methods: Data were gathered from the Christchurch Health and Development Study (CHDS).

Resilience and psychiatric epidemiology: Implications for a conceptual framework.

Kalisch and colleagues present a conceptual framework for the study of resilience, using a neurobiological approach. The present commentary examines issues arising for the study of resilience from epidemiological data, which suggest that resilience is most likely a normative function that may operate as a kind of psychological immune system. The implications of the epidemiological data on the development of a neurobiological theory of resilience are discussed.