A new study suggests the recession is likely to result in more suicides and worsening health, especially among Maori and Pacific people and the poor.
The University of Otago study, published in the New Zealand Medical Journal, bases its predictions on international studies and research on the effects of structural reforms in this country during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
One of the report's authors, Professor Tony Blakely, says ways the current recession might affect people's health include unemployment, lowered incomes and the reorganisation of health and social policies because of funding constraints.
