Welcome

The New Zealand Child and Youth Epidemiology Service (NZCYES) is a research until within the Department of Women's & Children's Health at the Dunedin School of Medicine. It was established by the Paediatric Society of New Zealand in 2004, in response to the perceived need for a single national entity to select, collate and disseminate timely and accurate information on the health of children and young people in New Zealand. It has been hosted by the University of Otago since March 2009.

The aims of the New Zealand Child and Youth Epidemiology Service are to:

1. Provide the New Zealand health sector with up to date and accurate information of the health of children and young people.
2. Highlight areas where there are disparities in child and youth health, or where inequities in service provision mean that children and young people are not reaching their full potential.
3. Contribute to the evidence base for policy development in child and youth health.
4. Share the Service's expertise with routinely collected data, with other researchers interested in improving the wellbeing of children and young people.

The NZCYES is currently contracted by the majority of DHBs to provide annual child and youth health reports to New Zealand's District Health Boards, using a Monitoring Framework developed following consultation with the health sector in 2006-2007. It is also contracted by the Ministry of Health to provide information on the Health of Māori and Pacific Children and Young People in New Zealand, as well as a national report on the Health of Children and Young People in New Zealand. Outside of these contracts, the NZCYES works, in collaboration with other organisations, on the New Zealand Children’s Social Health Monitor, a suite of indicators to monitor the impact of the current economic downturn on child wellbeing.