Social isolation from childhood to mid-adulthood: is there an association with older brain age?

Background: Older brain age - as estimated from structural MRI data - is known to be associated with detrimental mental and physical health outcomes in older adults. Social isolation, which has similar detrimental effects on health, may be associated with accelerated brain aging though little is known about how different trajectories of social isolation across the life course moderate this association. We examined the associations between social isolation trajectories from age 5 to age 38 and brain age assessed at age 45.

Anthropause appreciation, biophilia, and ecophilosophical contemplations amidst a global pandemic.

In 2020, COVID-19 mitigation measures, including lockdowns and travel bans to curtail disease transmission, inadvertently led to an "Anthropause" - a unique global pause to anthropogenic activities. While there was a spike in ecological studies measuring Anthropause effects on environmental indicators, people's experiences of the Anthropause or its potential to inspire change were hardly considered. Hence, we aimed to measure people's appreciation of the environmental outcomes of the Anthropause, ecophilosophical contemplations about the pandemic, and experiences of lockdown-triggered biophilia (human's innate love for and draw towards nature) and test the hypothesis that these experiences would be consistently more prominent among the already environmentally inclined.

Prevalence of Loneliness and Its Association With General and Health-Related Measures of Subjective Well-Being in a Longitudinal Bicultural Cohort of Older Adults in Advanced Age Living in New Zealand: LiLACS NZ.

Objectives: There is evidence that loneliness is detrimental to the subjective well-being of older adults. However, little is known on this topic for the cohort of those in advanced age (80 years or older), which today is the fastest-growing age group in the New Zealand population. We examined the relationships between loneliness and selected subjective well-being outcomes over 5 years.

Do socially isolated children become socially isolated adults?

Social isolation - the lack of social contacts in number and frequency - has been shown to have a negative impact on health and well-being. Using group-based trajectory analysis of longitudinal data from a New Zealand birth cohort, we created a typology of social isolation based on onset during the life course and persistence into adulthood. We then characterized each type according to risk factors related to family environment and child behavior that have been shown previously to be associated with social isolation.

Social attitudes and activities associated with loneliness: Findings from a New Zealand national survey of the adult population.

There has been growing recognition of the harmful consequences of loneliness for health and well-being, and the need for community intervention, particularly in times of global crisis such as the Covid-19 pandemic with its imperatives of distancing, isolation, and quarantine. Social capital and a sense of social cohesion are known to have roles in buffering against the effects of adverse life circumstances. Our study sought to investigate the association of a range of social attitudes and activities - as proxies for social capital - with loneliness while taking into account socio-demographic factors.

Scoping Review: Intergenerational Resource Transfer and Possible Enabling Factors.

We explore the intergenerational pattern of resource transfer and possible associated factors. A scoping review was conducted of quantitative, peer-reviewed, English-language studies related to intergenerational transfer or interaction. We searched AgeLine, PsycINFO, Social Work Abstracts, and Sociological Abstracts for articles published between Jane 2008 and December 2018.

Microsimulation model of child and adolescent overweight: making use of what we already know.

Background: New Zealand has high rates of child overweight and obesity when compared with other countries. Despite an abundance of research documenting the problem, it is unclear what the most effective policy changes or interventions are, and how policy changes might unfold over time within complex systems.

Methods: We use estimates derived from meta-analyses to create a dynamic microsimulation model of child overweight (including obesity).

Morbidity from intentional self-harm among Pacific peoples in New Zealand 1996-2015.

Aim: The aim of this study was to describe trends in intentional self-harm for Pacific peoples in New Zealand by reviewing official data over the period 1996-2015.

Method: Publicly funded hospitalisations where the external cause was intentional self-harm were examined and areas of interest were identified and are presented.

Results: Over a 19-year period (1996-2015), there were 1,608 intentional self-harm events for Pacific peoples (2.

Changing the balance of social care for older people: simulating scenarios under demographic ageing in New Zealand.

The demographic ageing of New Zealand society, as elsewhere in the developed world, has dramatically increased the proportion of older people (aged 65 years and over) in the population. This has major policy implications for the future organisation of social care. Our objective was to test the effects on social care use, first, of putative changes in the overall disability profile of older people, and second, of alterations to the balance of their care, i.

Rebalancing health service use for older people: simulating policy-relevant scenarios under demographic ageing.

Aims: The demographic ageing of New Zealand society has greatly increased the proportion of older people (aged 65 years and over), with major policy implications. We tested the effects on health service use of alterations to morbidity profile and the balance of care.

Methods: We developed a microsimulation model using data from an official national health survey series to generate a synthetic replicate for scenario testing.

Primary health care access and ambulatory sensitive hospitalizations in New Zealand.

Ambulatory sensitive hospitalizations (ASH) are those thought to be preventable by timely and effective primary health care. Better access to primary health care has been associated with lower ASH rates. Funding increases to primary health care in New Zealand beginning in 2001 led to an improvement in access.

Determinants and disparities: a simulation approach to the case of child health care.

Though there is much agreement on the importance of the social determinants of health, debate continues on suitable empirically-based models to underpin efforts to tackle health and health care disparities. We demonstrate an approach that uses a dynamic micro-simulation model of the early life course, based on longitudinal data from a New Zealand cohort of children born in 1977, and counterfactual reasoning applied to a range of outcomes. The focus is on health service use with a comparison to outcomes in non-health domains, namely educational attainment and antisocial behaviour.

Can patient safety indicators monitor medical and surgical care at New Zealand public hospitals?

Introduction: Increasing interest has focused on the safety of hospital care. The AusPSIs are a set of indicators developed from Australian administrative data to reliably identify inpatient adverse events in hospitals. The main aim of this study was to explore the application of the AHRQ/AusPSIs to New Zealand administrative hospital data related to medical and surgical care.

Efficiency, effectiveness, equity (E3). Evaluating hospital performance in three dimensions.

There are well-established frameworks for comparing the performance of health systems cross-nationally on multiple dimensions. A sub-set of such comprehensive schema is taken up by criteria specifically applied to health service delivery, including hospital performance. We focus on evaluating hospital performance, using the New Zealand public hospital sector over the period 2001-2009 as a pragmatic and illustrative case study for cross-national application.

Patterns of family doctor decision making in practice context. What are the implications for medical practice variation and social disparities?

Medical practice variation and social disparities in health are pervasive features of health care systems. But what impact might everyday clinical decision making have in shaping such aggregate patterns, and could this in turn be influenced by the immediate environment in which family doctors practise? We investigate this by studying inter-practitioner variation in clinical activity across four payment types in New Zealand, a "gatekeeper" primary care system. We do this for four measures of clinical activity by patient ethnic and socio-economic status in a 2001/2002 representative sample of 9272 encounters at 185 family practices.

Residential aged care in Auckland, New Zealand 1988-2008: do real trends over time match predictions?

Background: in Auckland, New Zealand in 1988, 7.7% of those aged over 65 years lived in licenced residential aged care. Age-specific rates approximately doubled for each 5-year age group after the age of 65 years.

Twenty-year trends in dependency in residential aged care in Auckland, New Zealand: a descriptive study.

Objective: To describe changes in aged care residents' dependency over a 20-year period.

Design: All residents in 1988, 1993, 1998, and 2008 were assessed using the same 23-item functional ability survey.

Setting: Residential aged care facilities in Auckland, New Zealand.

Using micro-simulation to create a synthesised data set and test policy options: the case of health service effects under demographic ageing.

Objectives: To assess micro-simulation for testing policy options under demographic ageing.

Methods: Individual-level data were drawn from the New Zealand Health Survey (1996/7 and 2002/3), a national survey of ambulatory care in New Zealand (2001/2), and the Australian National Health Survey (1995). Health service effects assessed were visits to the family doctor, and rates of prescribing and referral.

The association of gender concordance and primary care physicians' perceptions of their patients.

In this article, we examined the effect of gender concordance on physicians' perception of their patients and of their medical condition, analyzing a data set of 8,258 visit questionnaires from the New Zealand National Primary Care Medical Care Survey conducted in 2001 2002. Multivariate analysis indicated that the concordant female patient/female physician dyad had a positive independent association with physicians' reporting high rapport and a negative independent association with reporting uncertainty about the diagnosis. The discordant female patient/male physician dyad had a positive independent association with physicians' perceptions of uncertainty of diagnosis and hidden agenda, and a negative independent association with rating the patient's condition of high severity.

Patient dissatisfaction recorded in hospital notes in New Zealand: their occurrence and pattern.

Aims: To describe the occurrence and pattern of patient dissatisfaction and/or litigation recorded in medical notes in New Zealand public hospitals.

Methods: An analysis was carried out on 173 incidents of patient dissatisfaction and/or litigation recorded in medical notes. These were identified from a representative sample of 6579 medical records for 1998 drawn from 13 public hospitals as part of a screening exercise designed to detect the occurrence of adverse events.

Cardiovascular risk management of different ethnic groups with type 2 diabetes in primary care in New Zealand.

Aims: To examine cardiovascular preventive and renal protective treatment for different ethnic groups with diabetes in primary care.

Methods: The study population included patients with type 2 diabetes attending an annual review in New Zealand primary care during 2004. Primary care data were linked to hospital admission data to identify previous cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Do hospital bed reduction and multiple system reform affect patient mortality?: A trend and multilevel analysis in New Zealand over the period 1988-2001.

Background: The impact of hospital and system restructuring on the quality and pattern of care is an important issue of public policy concern.

Objective: To assess the effect on patterns of care and patient outcomes of a substantial reduction in public hospital bed availability and multiple reorganizations in New Zealand through the 1990s.

Research Design: Trend analysis using both tabular and multilevel techniques.

Comparison of services provided by urban commercial, community-governed and traditional primary care practices in New Zealand.

Objectives: New Zealand has experienced restructuring and reform of primary health care since the 1980s, including the introduction of commercial clinics and increasing numbers of practices run by community-governed organizations. Our aim was to compare commercial, community-governed and traditional practices in five key domains: access; coordination and continuity of care; communication and patient centredness; population health and preventive health; and chronic disease management.

Methods: A nationally representative, multistage probability sample of private general practitioners, stratified by geographical location and practice type, was drawn.