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Events & conferences > MYD Seminar series > New Zealand's National Youth Health and Wellbeing Surveys
New Zealand's National Youth Health and Wellbeing Surveys
On 21 April 2008, the Ministry of Youth Development hosted a seminar by Dr Peter Watson and Dr Simon Denny - New Zealand's National Youth Health and Wellbeing Surveys: The cross roads of research and policy.
Presented by Dr Peter Watson, Specialist Youth Health Physician at
Whirinaki, the Counties-Manukau DHB CAMHS and Dr Simon Denny,
Paediatrician working at the Centre for Youth Health in the
Counties-Manukau DHB and University of Auckland.
There is a now an emerging scientific consensus on the requirements for
research within public health to inform public policy. This consensus
recognises that public health research is fundamentally
multidisciplinary and integrates three perspectives: life course
development, which includes identification of early risk and protective
factors; community epidemiology to identify population level variation
of risk and protective factors; and intervention studies aimed at
modifying or moderating risk or protective factors to change life
trajectories and improve health outcomes.
While longitudinal studies are able to identify important information
about causal risk and protective factors, population level
epidemiological studies are needed to identify variations within and
between populations to highlight important areas for intervention.
Furthermore, as populations and communities continue to evolve and
change, population epidemiological studies are needed to be repeated to
monitor important trends and identify emerging health issues and/or
risk factors.
To this end the Adolescent Health Research Group has undertaken New
Zealand’s second national survey of youth health, Youth07. It follows
on from Youth2000 with the aim to collect, analyse and disseminate
accurate and comprehensive information on the health and wellbeing of
New Zealand's youth.
The goal of the Youth Surveys is to provide timely information for
informing policies and practices to improve the health of New Zealand
youth. This seminar presented findings from Youth2000, highlighted
findings that will be available from Youth07 and discussed the research
and policy benefits of these surveys.
Dr Peter Watson is a Paediatrician whose work is in the field of youth
health and development. Peter currently works as a Specialist Youth
Health Physician at Whirinaki, the Counties-Manukau DHB CAMHS. Peter
was the principal investigator of Youth2000, New Zealand’s first
national youth health and wellbeing survey.
Dr Simon Denny is a Paediatrician working at the Centre for Youth
Health in the Counties-Manukau DHB and University of Auckland. Simon
completed his adolescent training in the USA where he was a 2000-01
Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy.
He is the principal investigator of Youth07 which aims to collect,
analyse and disseminate accurate and comprehensive information on the
health and wellbeing of New Zealand youth.
More Information
For more information on this seminar, email us at mydinfo@myd.govt.nz
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