Neighbourhoods and Health, Department of Public Health

About us

The Neighbourhoods and Health project began in 2004, seeking to better understand neighbourhood variations in health.

Objectives

The objectives for 2004-2007 were:

• To measure community resource access at the meshblock using geographic information system (GIS) methods.
• To measure social fragmentation of urban neighbourhoods.
• To determine the association of neighbourhood community resource access, social fragmentation and social capital with morbidity and mortality, controlling for time lags, migration and varying individual-level composition of neighbourhoods.

The objectives for 2008-2011 were:

• Wellington extension to URBAN: Adding 12 neighbourhoods in Wellington to the URBAN project and adding questions on preferences for type of neighbourhood lived in and food outlets. Developing a comprehensive composite measure of PA related resources.
• In-depth case studies: In-depth qualitative case-studies in four neighbourhoods, to answer:
• Social practices: How are neighbourhood environments used as social and physical activity spaces? What are the social practices that reinforce engaging in PA?
• Selection: Do people live where they do because of its conduciveness to physical activity (built, natural and social factors)? Does this matter for their PA?
• Scale: What influences people's decision making on the location of physical activity within/without their neighbourhood?
• Triangulation: Bringing above N&H and URBAN objectives together for richer understanding

For a more indepth description of the Neighbourhoods and Health project please click on the the Neighbourhoods and Health overview document - Neighbourhoods and Health overview

Funder

Neighbourhoods and Health is funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand.

Publications

A list of publications of the Neighbourhoods and Health project

Our people

University of Otago, Wellington

• Vivienne Ivory (Principal Investigator)
• Tony Blakely (Joint-PI)

Other organisations

• Karen Witten (SHORE, Massey University)
• Jamie Pearce (Canterbury University)
• Anna Stevenson (Canterbury District Health Board)

Advisors

• Sunny Collings (University of Otago, Wellington)
• Philippa Howden-Chapman (University of Otago, Wellington)
• Kevin Dew (Victoria University of Wellington)