Crunching data lines up Māori and Pasifika mental health to their living environment

Crunching the data will confirm living environments have effects on mental health. Photo / Supplied

A study is looking at Māori and Pasifika living environments and a connection to mental health issues.

Growing up in an area with fast food, alcohol and gambling can be bad for your mental health, the early data from a multi-approach report confirms.

A multi-university team is working with funding from Cure Kids and the Better Start National Science Challenge on the research.

Otago University researcher Nick Bowden says they’re crunching the population-level data of a million young New Zealanders aged from 10 to 24.

He hopes the findings will 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 licence outlets, hopefully continuing to reduce to the prevalence of pokie machines in communities,” Bowden told Waatea News.com.

The next stage of the study includes looking at where Māori and Pasifika grow up and the effects of that environment on mental health.

Waatea News.Com