The longitudinal study, ‘Growing Up in New Zealand’, was explicitly established to provide contemporary, population-relevant evidence about the multi-disciplinary determinants of pathways towards health and development for children born in the 21st century New Zealand. Improvements in child health have been slower in New Zealand in recent decades relative to other developed countries, and in 2009 New Zealand was ranked 29th out of 30 OECD countries.¹ Examples of child health indicators where New Zealand performs relatively poorly include infant mortality rates, immunization coverage, accidents and injuries in under 5-year-olds, rates of child maltreatment and hospital admission rates for a spectrum of communicable diseases including pertussis, pneumonia and rheumatic fever.^1–4

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Background The association of social capital with health and mortality is contentious, and empirical findings are inconsistent. This study tests the association of neighbourhood-level volunteerism with mortality. Methods Cohort study of 1996 New Zealand census respondents aged 25–74 years (4.75 million person years) using multilevel Poisson regression analyses. Neighbourhood (average population 2034) measures included indices of social capital (volunteering activities for all census respondents) and deprivation. Results Adjusting for just age and marital status, the mortality rate ratios for people living in the quintile of neighbourhoods with the lowest compared with highest volunteerism were 1.16 (95% confidence interval 1.08–1.24) and 1.09 (1.01–1.18), for males and females, respectively. Adjusting for potential individual-level and neighbourhood-level socioeconomic confounders reduced the rate ratios to 0.94 (0.88–1.01) and 0.92 (0.85–1.01), respectively. There was no significant association with any cause of death, including suicide [rate ratios 0.89 (0.64–1.22) and 0.57 (0.31–1.05), respectively]. Restricting the analyses to only those census respondents living at their census night address for five or more years, and therefore ‘exposed’ to that level of volunteerism for a longer period, did not substantially alter findings. Conclusions This study, one of the largest multilevel studies yet, found no statistically significant independent association of a structural measure of neighbourhood social capital with mortality—including suicide. Assuming social features of neighbourhoods are important determinants of health, future research should examine other features (e.g. social fragmentation) and other outcomes (e.g. behaviour).

Objective: To determine adherence to nutritional guidelines by pregnant women in New Zealand and maternal characteristics associated with adherence.Design: A cohort of the pregnant women enrolled into New Zealand’s new birth cohort study, Growing Up in New Zealand.Setting: Women residing within a North Island region of New Zealand, where one-third of the national population lives.Subjects: Pregnant women (n 5664) were interviewed during 2009–2010. An FFQ was administered during the face-to-face interview.Results: The recommended daily number of servings of vegetables and fruit (≥6) were met by 25 % of the women; of breads and cereals (≥6) by 26 %; of milk and milk products (≥3) by 58 %; and of lean meat, meat alternatives and eggs (≥2) by 21 %. One in four women did not meet the recommendations for any food group. Only 3 % met all four food group recommendations. Although adherence to recommendation for the vegetables/fruit group did not vary by ethnicity (P=0·38), it did vary for the breads/cereals, milk/milk products and meat/eggs groups (all P<0·001). Adherence to recommendations for the vegetables/fruit group was higher among older women (P=0·001); for the breads/cereals group was higher for women with previous children (P<0·001) and from lower-income households (P<0·001); and for the meat/eggs group was higher for women with previous children (P=0·003) and from lower-income households (P=0·004).Conclusions: Most pregnant women in New Zealand do not adhere to nutritional guidelines in pregnancy, with only 3 % meeting the recommendations for all four food groups. Adherence varies more so with ethnicity than with other sociodemographic characteristics.

Adult socioeconomic position (SEP) is one of the most frequently hypothesised indirect pathways between childhood SEP and adult health. However, few studies that explore the indirect associations between childhood SEP and adult health systematically investigate the mediating role of multiple individual measures of adult SEP for different health outcomes. We examine the potential mediating role of individual measures of adult SEP in the associations of childhood SEP with self-rated health, self-reported mental health, current smoking status and binge drinking in adulthood.