Adolescents' perceptions of food outlets in the school neighbourhood and their unhealthy snacking behaviour on the way to and from school.

Objective: To understand the relationship between adolescents' unhealthy snacking behaviour during their school journey and their perceived and objective measures of food outlet availability in the school neighbourhood.

Design: A cross-sectional survey enquired about socio-demographic information, school transport modes, perceived presence of food outlets in the school neighbourhood and unhealthy food purchase and consumption on the school journey. A geographical information system analysis of the food outlets within 500 m and 1000 m school buffers was undertaken.

Adjusting vehicle secondary safety ratings to account for crash-avoidance technology fitment using real-world crash and injury data.

Objectives: Publicizing safety ratings of vehicles can motivate manufacturers to prioritize safety and help consumers choose safer vehicles, leading to safer fleets. The benefits of primary safety technologies that prevent crash occurrence are not currently incorporated in current ratings in a way that values their safety benefits consistently. We aimed to propose a method for assigning weights for each safety technology to account for established safety benefits using published effectiveness and prevalence from real-life data.

Dietary Pattern Indicators among Healthy and Unhealthy Weight Adolescents Residing in Different Contexts across the Otago Region, New Zealand.

Reported obesity rates for adolescents in different urban and rural areas are inconsistent. We examined indicators of healthy and unhealthy dietary patterns among 1863 adolescents aged 13-18 years with a healthy or excess body weight attending 23 secondary schools in four different settlement types across the Otago region, New Zealand. An online survey included demographics and dietary behaviours.

He Kāinga Oranga: reflections on 25 years of measuring the improved health, wellbeing and sustainability of healthier housing.

This paper reflects on the influences and outcomes of He Kāinga Oranga/Housing and Health Research Programme over 25 years, and their impact on housing and health policy in Aotearoa and internationally. Working in partnership particularly with Māori and Pasifika communities, we have conducted randomised control trials which have shown the health and broad co-benefits of retrofitted insulation, heating and remediation of home hazards, which have underpinned government policy in the Warm Up NZ-Heat Smart programme and the Healthy Homes Standards for rental housing. These trials have been included as evidence in the WHO Housing and Health Guidelines and led to our designation as a WHO Collaborating Centre on Housing and Wellbeing.

The Impact of Transport on Population Health and Health Equity for Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand: A Prospective Burden of Disease Study.

Background: The land transport system influences health via a range of pathways. This study aimed to quantify the amount and distribution of health loss caused by the current land transport system in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) through the pathways of road injury, air pollution and physical inactivity.

Methods: We used an existing multi-state life table model to estimate the long-term health impacts (in health-adjusted life years (HALYs)) and changes in health system costs of removing road injury and transport related air pollution and increasing physical activity to recommended levels through active transport.

Home modifications to prevent home fall injuries in houses with Māori occupants (MHIPI): a randomised controlled trial.

Background: As with many Indigenous populations internationally, Māori in New Zealand suffer health inequity. We aimed to assess the rate of fall injuries at home with and without home modifications in houses with Māori occupants.

Methods: We did a single-blind randomised controlled trial in the Wellington and Taranaki regions of New Zealand and enrolled owner-occupied households with at least one Māori occupant.

Evaluation of the effectiveness of vehicle roll stability control (RSC) for high center of gravity light passenger vehicles in Australasia.

Objective: Rollover crashes, which occur when the vehicle's side or roof makes impact with the ground, present particularly serious injury risk. Higher rollover risk has been found for high riding vehicles - those with a relatively high center of gravity compared to the width of the wheel track. Electronic Stability Control (ESC), which automatically applies brakes to individual wheels and reduces engine power to help drivers regain control when traction is lost, has been shown to be effective in preventing a proportion of rollovers.

Environmental burden of disease from unsafe and substandard housing, New Zealand, 2010-2017.

Objective: To assess the burden of disease related to unsafe and substandard housing conditions in New Zealand from 2010 to 2017.

Methods: We focused on substandard housing conditions most relevant for New Zealand homes: crowding, cold, damp or mould, and injury hazards linked to falls. We estimated the population attributable fraction using existing estimates of the population exposed and exposure-response relationships of health disorders associated with each housing condition.

Study Protocol of a Randomized Controlled Trial of Home Modification to Prevent Home Fall Injuries in Houses with Māori Occupants.

Worldwide, injuries due to falls in the home impose a substantial burden and merit considerable effort to find effective prevention measures. The current study is one of very few randomized controlled trials that assess the effectiveness of home modification for preventing falls. It is the first carried out with a minority or indigenous community and focused on reducing inequities.

Volunteering in older adulthood is associated with activity engagement and cognitive functioning.

: Given evidence that activity engagement in older adulthood can have protective effects on the aging brain, we investigated the idea that volunteering in the community, which often encompasses social, cognitive, and physical activity, might benefit cognition. : Ninety-one retired 65- to 75-year-olds reported their sociodemographic characteristics, wellbeing, volunteering, and activity engagement. They also completed computerized cognitive tests that tapped specific functions known to decline disproportionately with age.

Built environment changes and active transport to school among adolescents: BEATS Natural Experiment Study protocol.

Introduction: Natural experiments are considered a priority for examining causal associations between the built environment (BE) and physical activity (PA) because the randomised controlled trial design is rarely feasible. Few natural experiments have examined the effects of walking and cycling infrastructure on PA and active transport in adults, and none have examined the effects of such changes on PA and active transport to school among adolescents. We conducted the Built Environment and Active Transport to School (BEATS) Study in Dunedin city, New Zealand, in 2014-2017.

Why is the rate of annual road fatalities increasing? A unit record analysis of New Zealand data (2010-2017).

Introduction: Recent increases in road crashes have reversed New Zealand's formerly declining crash rates to produce annual fatal and serious injury counts that are 49% higher than the lowest rates achieved in 2013.

Method: We model twenty-one factors in fatal and serious injury crashes, four years before and after 2013 using logistic regression. Three major factors are significantly different in the period after 2013, when crash rates increased: (1) alcohol as a cause, (2) learner licence holders, and (3) a regional effect for Auckland.

Evaluating natural experiments to measure the co-benefits of urban policy interventions to reduce carbon emissions in New Zealand.

Finding effective policy interventions for addressing the Sustainable Development Goals, such as reducing carbon emissions (SDG 13), which can also enhance good health and wellbeing (SDG 3), is urgent. Many promising interactions occur between sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11), clean water and sanitation (SDG 6) and affordable and clean energy (SDG 7), which sit at the centre of integrated urban planning and regeneration. In this paper, we consider the framing and findings of four policies we have evaluated as natural experiments, all of which have important co-benefits, which were not always the focus of the initial policies.

Damp mouldy housing and early childhood hospital admissions for acute respiratory infection: a case control study.

Introduction: A gap exists in the literature regarding dose-response associations of objectively assessed housing quality measures, particularly dampness and mould, with hospitalisation for acute respiratory infection (ARI) among children.

Methods: A prospective, unmatched case-control study was conducted in two paediatric wards and five general practice clinics in Wellington, New Zealand, over winter/spring 2011-2013. Children aged <2 years who were hospitalised for ARI (cases), and either seen in general practice with ARI not requiring admission or for routine immunisation (controls) were included in the study.

Why don't owners improve their homes? Results from a survey following a housing warrant-of-fitness assessment for health and safety.

Objective: To assess homeowners' intentions to make voluntary improvements to their homes following a warrant-of-fitness (WOF) assessment to highlight health and safety issues.

Methods: We recruited 83 homeowners, including nine landlords, in Taranaki, New Zealand, who agreed to have a WOF assessment carried out on their homes. We interviewed 40 of the homeowners to ascertain what improvements they planned to make, and barriers to improving their homes.

Physical and spatial assessment of school neighbourhood built environments for active transport to school in adolescents from Dunedin (New Zealand).

Adolescent active transport to school (ATS) is influenced by demographic, social, environmental and policy factors. Yet, the relationship between school neighbourhood built environment (SN-BE) and adolescents' ATS remains largely unexplored. This observational study examined associations between observed, objectively-measured and perceived SN-BE features and adolescents' ATS in Dunedin (New Zealand).

A Cost Benefit Analysis of an Active Travel Intervention with Health and Carbon Emission Reduction Benefits.

Active travel (walking and cycling) is beneficial for people’s health and has many co-benefits, such as reducing motor vehicle congestion and pollution in urban areas. There have been few robust evaluations of active travel, and very few studies have valued health and emissions outcomes. The ACTIVE before-and-after quasi-experimental study estimated the net benefits of health and other outcomes from New Zealand’s Model Communities Programme using an empirical analysis comparing two intervention cities with two control cities.

The extent of backover collisions internationally.

This study reports good consistency in international comparisons of the number and severity of backover crashes. More than half occurred to pedestrians aged 60 years and older. Children less than 9 years comprised 5% of these crashes with a similar percent aged 10 to 19 years.

Health consequences of transport patterns in New Zealand's largest cities.

Aim: Transport is a well-known determinant of health, through physical activity, air pollution and injury pathways. New Zealand has a highly car-dominated transport system, but cities differ in the amounts of walking, cycling and public transport use, reflecting different urban planning priorities over time.

Methods: Using the Integrated Transport and Health Impacts Model, adapted for New Zealand, we quantified the likely changes in health and greenhouse emissions if Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Christchurch and Dunedin Cities had the same mode share for cycling, walking, public transport and car use as Wellington City, which currently has the highest levels of sustainable travel.

Impact of improved insulation and heating on mortality risk of older cohort members with prior cardiovascular or respiratory hospitalisations.

Objectives: We carried out an evaluation of a large-scale New Zealand retrofit programme using administrative data that provided the statistical power to assess the effect of insulation and/or heating retrofits on cardiovascular and respiratory-related mortality in people aged 65 and over with prior respiratory or circulatory hospitalisations.

Design: Quasi-experimental cohort study based on administrative data.

Setting: New Zealand.

Measuring the Effect of Housing Quality Interventions: The Case of the New Zealand "Rental Warrant of Fitness".

In New Zealand, as in many other countries, housing in the private-rental sector is in worse condition than in the owner-occupier housing sector. New Zealand residential buildings have no inspection regime after original construction signoff. Laws and regulations mandating standards for existing residential housing are outdated and spread over a range of instruments.

Physical Activity Prevalence and Correlates Among New Zealand Older Adults.

The aim of this study was to provide up-to-date information about physical activity (PA) levels in New Zealand older adults to inform the development and targeting of relevant health promotion initiatives. Nationally-representative survey (N = 1,468) data were analyzed to assess in people aged ≥ 60 years the prevalence of physical inactivity and meeting PA guidelines, differences between 2012 and 2014, and sociodemographic correlates. One-fifth (20.