Research team
Matt Hobbs (FoH – UoC)
Joseph Boden (UoO)
Lianne Woodward (UoC)
Annabel Ahuriri-Driscoll (UoC)
Funding
HRC Emerging Researcher First Grant
Duration
2023-2024
Project summary
Air pollution is recognised as a cause of morbidity but its longer-term and cumulative effects on health are less established. In New Zealand, persistent health inequities exist for Māori who are exposed to poorer environments than non-Māori. Using prospective longitudinal data from a large birth cohort of New Zealanders (n=1,265) we examined relations between the extent of air pollution exposure from conception to age 40 years and a range of physical (e.g. respiratory disease) and mental health (e.g. depression) and socioeconomic (e.g. education) outcomes. We hypothesised that higher levels of exposure were associated with poorer outcomes. Exposure was assessed at: conception (1975/76); early-childhood (1981/82); early-adulthood (2001 and 2006); and mid-adulthood (2016). This research advances scientific and public health understanding of the health and socioeconomic impacts of air pollution exposure over the lifecourse. It also informs cross-sectoral policies on the environmental determinants of health and historical causes of inequity.
Outputs:
Hobbs, M., Deng, B., Woodward, L., Marek, L., McLeod, G., Sturman, A., Kingham, S., Ahuriri-Driscoll, A., Eggleton, P., Campbell, M. and Boden, J., 2025. Childhood air pollution exposure is related to cognitive, educational and mental health outcomes in childhood and adolescence: A longitudinal birth cohort study. Environmental research, 274, p.121148. https://doi:10.1016/j.envres.2025.121148
Hobbs, M., Deng, B., Marek, L., Woodward, L., McLeod, G., Sturman, A., Kingham, S., Ahuriri-Driscoll, A., Eggleton, P. and Boden, J., 2025. Childhood air pollution exposure is related to cognitive, educational and mental health outcomes in childhood and adolescence: a longitudinal birth cohort study. J Epidemiol Community Health
Hobbs, M., Deng, B., Woodward, L.J., Marek, L., Eggleton, P. and Boden, J.M., 2025. Examining the association between air pollution exposure (PM10, PM2. 5 and NO2) across the lifecourse on behavioural and mental health outcomes in adulthood in the Christchurch Health and Development study: a prospective birth cohort study. Atmospheric Environment, p.121553. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2025.121553
