May 12, 2023
Data crunch links environment to mental health
Growing up in an area with lots of outlets for fast food, alcohol and gambling can be bad for your mental health.
That sounds obvious, but a multi-university team working with funding from Cure Kids and the Better Start National Science Challenge is turning the idea from anecdotes into evidence.
Researcher Nick Bowden from the University of Otago says they’re crunching the population-level data of a million young New Zealanders aged from 10 to 24.
He hopes the findings can be used by local and central government to make evidence-based changes, as well as give community organisations the ammunition they need to advocate for improvements.
“It’s kind of timely with the (Supreme Court) decision late last week to (allow councils to) minimise exposure to alcohol through opening hours of selling alcohol in supermarkets. That’s the type of thing we can perhaps do more of, limiting new alcohol license outlets, hopefully continuing to reduce to prevalence of pokie machines in communities,” Dr Bowden says.
The next stages of the study include looking at where Maori and Pasifika grow up and the effects of that environment on mental health.