24 years of life lost: people placed in state care have died earlier, more violent deaths – new study

Lake Alice Hospital, one of many institutions investigated by the abuse-in-state-care inquiry. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

A new study using a large collection of demographic data has revealed the lasting and damaging consequences for children placed in state care between 1950 and 1999 – including huge disparities in life expectancy compared with the general population.

The study utilised the Stats NZ Integrated Data Infrastructure – a large collection of linked data sets about people and households from across many government agencies, Stats NZ surveys, and non-government organisations.