Researchers in Canterbury have received funding for what they say is an unprecedented study into the lives of people affected by natural disaster.
The Christchurch Health and Development Study has been following the lives of more than 1200 people born in the city in 1977.
It is turning its attention to how those people, now in their mid-30s, came through the earthquakes.
One of the researchers, David Fergusson, says half the study participants were out of Canterbury at the time of the earthquakes, allowing a vital comparison between those who experienced the disaster and those who did not.
He says the study will look for conditions including depression, alcoholism, stress and family violence.
The project is one of 52 to benefit from $74.56 million of new Health Research Council funding.
