The economic downturn in New Zealand is likely to result in more suicides, and slowing of health improvements among Maori and Pacific Islanders and lower socio-economic groups, according to a University of Otago study published in the New Zealand Medical Journal.

The article, written by Professor Tony Blakely and Dr Melissa McLeod of Otago University's Wellington campus, bases predictions on both international studies and research on the impacts of structural reforms in New Zealand, during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Blakely says the current recession might impact on health through unemployment, lowered incomes, and reorganisation of health and social policies in the face of funding constraints.