18 Oct 2010

Maori health trends and time-lines to be available online

6:38 am on 18 October 2010

A new online tool will make it easier for researchers to get information about Maori health trends.

The centre for public health research at Massey University is working with the Eru Pomare Centre at Otago Univerity and the Maori directorate of the Ministry of Health to make regional and historical data readily available to health workers, researchers and the public.

Associate professor Barry Borman told Waatea News that it will give a sense of things like the impact of vaccination programmes on meningococcal disease or whether raising the excise on tobacco affects Maori smoking rates.

"Having CPHR online enables us to see the geographic distribution and also monitor the progress that we're making, so we can build up time-trends," he said.

Professor Borman says Massey's centre for public health research is keen to hear from others who want to put data on the site, at CP HRonline.massey.ac.nz