Health impacts of war: case studies of New Zealand veterans of the First World War.

Aim: Armed conflict remains a tragic feature of the modern world and so it is necessary to continue to study its health impacts. Even the study of historical conflicts is relevant given that certain health impacts are common to most wars e.g.

The unseen casualties of the First World War: insights from a randomly selected military sample.

Aims: Studies of the morbidity burden of military personnel participating in the First World War (WWI) have tended to focus on specific outcomes (e.g., injuries).

Tobacco endgame intervention impacts on health gains and Māori:non-Māori health inequity: a simulation study of the Aotearoa/New Zealand Tobacco Action Plan.

Background: The Aotearoa/New Zealand Government is aiming to end the tobacco epidemic and markedly reduce Māori:non-Māori health inequalities by legislating: (1) denicotinisation of retail tobacco, (2) 95% reduction in retail outlets and (c) a tobacco free-generation whereby people born after 2005 are unable to legally purchase tobacco. This paper estimates future smoking prevalence, mortality inequality and health-adjusted life year (HALY) impacts of these strategies.

Methods: We used a Markov model to estimate future yearly smoking and vaping prevalence, linked to a proportional multistate life table model to estimate future mortality and HALYs.

Disease-Related Loss to Government Funding: Longitudinal Analysis of Individual-Level Health and Tax Data for an Entire Country.

Objectives: The objective of this longitudinal analysis was to estimate funding loss in terms of tax revenue to the New Zealand (NZ) government from disease and injury among working age adults.

Methods: Linked national health and tax data sets of the usually resident population between 2006 and 2016 were used to model 40 disease states simultaneously in a fixed-effects regression analysis to estimate population-level tax loss from disease and injury. To estimate tax revenue loss to the NZ government, we modeled a counterfactual scenario where all disease/injury was cause deleted.

Improving on estimates of the potential relative harm to health from using modern ENDS (vaping) compared to tobacco smoking.

Background: Although the harm to health from electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) compared to smoked tobacco remains highly uncertain, society and governments still need to know the likely range of the relative harm to inform regulatory policies for ENDS and smoking.

Methods: We identified biomarkers with specificity of association with different disease groupings e.g.

Updated Health and Cost Impacts of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems, Using Recent Estimates of Relative Harm for Vaping Compared to Smoking.

Background: Measuring population health and costs effects of liberalizing access to electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) is an evolving field with high persisting uncertainty. A critical area of uncertainty for policy-makers are estimates of net harms from ENDS relative to cigarettes, therefore, we model these harms using updated estimates incorporating disease specificity.

Methods: We use updated estimates of relative harm of vaping vs smoking, based upon relevant biomarker studies to model the impact of liberalizing access to ENDS in New Zealand (NZ), relative to a ban (where ENDS are not legally available), in an existing proportional multi-state life-table model of 16 tobacco-related diseases.

Failures of quarantine systems for preventing COVID-19 outbreaks in Australia and New Zealand.

Objectives: To identify COVID-19 quarantine system failures in Australia and New Zealand.

Design, Setting, Participants: Observational epidemiological study of travellers in managed quarantine in Australia and New Zealand, to 15 June 2021.

Main Outcome Measures: Number of quarantine system failures, and failure with respect to numbers of travellers and SARS-CoV-2-positive travellers.

New Zealand's experience of the 1918-19 influenza pandemic: a systematic review after 100 years.

Background: The 1918-1919 influenza pandemic has been New Zealand's most severe disaster event (around 9,000 deaths). We aimed to review the literature related to this pandemic in New Zealand and among New Zealanders overseas, to identify any remaining research gaps (given ongoing risks of future influenza pandemics and from new pathogens, eg, synthetic bioweapons).

Methods: Systematic literature searches and comparisons with international findings for this pandemic to facilitate identification of research gaps.

SecurAcath for Securing Peripherally Inserted Central Catheters: A NICE Medical Technology Guidance.

Central venous catheters are commonly used to deliver therapies and to monitor patients, and require securing at the point of percutaneous entry to avoid dislodgement. SecurAcath is a catheter securement device designed for central venous catheters. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, as a part of its Medical Technologies Evaluation Programme, selected this device for evaluation and invited the manufacturer, Interrad Medical, to submit clinical and economic evidence.

Virtual Touch™ Quantification to Diagnose and Monitor Liver Fibrosis in Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C: A NICE Medical Technology Guidance.

Virtual Touch™ Quantification (VTq) is a software application used with Siemens Acuson ultrasound scanners to assess the stiffness of liver tissue. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Medical Technologies Advisory Committee (MTAC) selected VTq for evaluation and invited the company to submit clinical and economic evidence. King's Technology Evaluation Centre, an External Assessment Centre (EAC) commissioned by NICE, independently assessed the evidence submitted.

Multicentre prospective survey of SeHCAT provision and practice in the UK.

Objective: A clinical diagnosis of bile acid malabsorption (BAM) can be confirmed using SeHCAT (tauroselcholic ((75)selenium) acid), a radiolabelled synthetic bile acid. However, while BAM can be the cause of chronic diarrhoea, it is often overlooked as a potential diagnosis. Therefore, we investigated the use of SeHCAT for diagnosis of BAM in UK hospitals.

A Single-centre Early Phase Randomised Controlled Three-arm Trial of Open, Robotic, and Laparoscopic Radical Cystectomy (CORAL).

Background: Laparoscopic radical cystectomy (LRC) and robot-assisted radical cystectomy (RARC) are increasingly popular, but high-level evidence for these techniques remains lacking.

Objective: To compare the outcomes of patients undergoing open radical cystectomy (ORC), RARC, and LRC.

Design, Setting, And Participants: From March 2009 to July 2012, 164 patients requiring radical cystectomy for muscle-invasive bladder cancer or high-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer were invited to participate, with an aim of recruiting 47 patients into each arm.

Mortality of first world war military personnel: comparison of two military cohorts.

Objective: To identify the impact of the first world war on the lifespan of participating military personnel (including in veterans who survived the war).

Design: Comparison of two cohorts of military personnel, followed to death.

Setting: Military personnel leaving New Zealand to participate in the first world war.

The geko™ electro-stimulation device for venous thromboembolism prophylaxis: a NICE medical technology guidance.

The geko™ device is a single-use, battery-powered, neuromuscular electrostimulation device that aims to reduce the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE). The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) selected the geko™ device for evaluation, and invited the manufacturer, Firstkind Ltd, to submit clinical and economic evidence. King's Technology Evaluation Centre, an External Assessment Centre (EAC) commissioned by the NICE, independently assessed the evidence submitted.

Risk factors for death from pandemic influenza in 1918-1919: a case-control study.

Background: Despite the persisting threat from future influenza pandemics, much is still unknown about the risk factors for death from such events, and especially for the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic.

Methods: A case-control study was performed to explore possible risk factors for death from pandemic influenza among New Zealand military personnel in the Northern Hemisphere in 1918-1919 (n = 218 cases, n = 221 controls). Data were compiled from a Roll-of-Honour dataset, a dataset of nearly all military personnel involved in the war and archived individual records.

Fatal injury epidemiology among the New Zealand military forces in the First World War.

Background: Despite the large mortality burden of First World War (WW1) on New Zealand (NZ) military forces, no analysis using modern epidemiological methods has ever been conducted. We therefore aimed to study injury-related mortality amongst NZ military forces in WW1.

Methods: An electronic version of the Roll-of-Honour for NZ Expeditionary Force (NZEF) personnel was supplemented with further coding and analysed statistically.

Severe impact of the 1918-19 pandemic influenza in a national military force.

The impact of pandemic influenza on the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) in 1918-19 has never been studied using modern epidemiological methods. Therefore we analysed mortality and descriptive data from various sources for these military personnel. An estimated 930 NZEF personnel deaths from pandemic influenza occurred in 1918-19, making it the main cause of disease deaths, and representing 5.

The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 in two remote island nations: Iceland and New Zealand.

Aim: Nations varied in their experience of, and response to, the 1918-19 influenza pandemic. Island communities can provide unique opportunities to study the epidemiology of infectious diseases. We aimed to compare the epidemiology and public health response to this pandemic in two remote island nations, on opposite sides of the globe: Iceland and New Zealand (NZ).

A nutritional analysis of New Zealand military food rations at Gallipoli in 1915: likely contribution to scurvy and other nutrient deficiency disorders.

Background: Amongst New Zealand soldiers in Gallipoli in 1915 there were reports of poor food quality and cases of scurvy. But no modern analysis of the military food rations has ever been conducted to better understand potential nutritional problems in this group.

Methods: We analysed the foods in the military rations for 1915 using food composition data on the closest equivalents for modern foods.

The 2009 influenza pandemic: a review of the strengths and weaknesses of the health sector response in New Zealand.

Introduction: To inform future pandemic planning and disaster response, we aimed to review the literature on the health sector response to the influenza A (H1N1) 2009 pandemic in New Zealand in 2009.

Methods: We searched PubMed and Google Scholar along with the websites of government agencies for the period 1 April 2009 to 20 May 2012.

Results: In 2009, 18% of the New Zealand population had evidence of infection from the pandemic strain, 1122 people were hospitalised (with pandemic influenza as the primary diagnosis), 102 of those hospitalised were treated in intensive care units (ICU), and there were an estimated 49 pandemic-attributed deaths.

Pandemic influenza outbreak on a troop ship--diary of a soldier in 1918.

A newly identified diary from a soldier in 1918 describes aspects of a troop ship outbreak of pandemic influenza. This diary is the only known document that describes this outbreak and provides information not officially documented concerning possible risk factors such as overcrowding and the suboptimal outbreak response by military leaders. It also presents an independent personal perspective of this overwhelming experience.

Differential mortality rates by ethnicity in 3 influenza pandemics over a century, New Zealand.

Evidence suggests that indigenous populations have suffered disproportionately from past influenza pandemics. To examine any such patterns for Māori in New Zealand, we searched the literature and performed new analyses by using additional datasets. The Māori death rate in the 1918 pandemic (4,230/100,000 population) was 7.