30 with the VC | Professor Moana Theodore

[00:00:00] Grant Robertson
Kia ora, I'm Grant Robertson, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Otago - Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka. Welcome to this series, 30 with the VC, where we talk to the people who do the amazing mahi at the University of Otago, otherwise known as Grant Gets Schooled. And today, my guest is Professor Moana Theodore, who is the Director of the world-famous Dunedin Study. Kia ora, Moana.

[00:00:24] Moana Theodore
Tēnā koe, Grant.

[00:00:25] Grant Robertson
Great to have you here.

[00:00:27] Moana Theodore
It's lovely to be here.

[00:00:27] Grant Robertson
For each programme in this series, we invite our guests to bring an object along to start our conversation off. And Moana's brought two, which is her right. So Moana, would you like to talk about the objects that you've brought today?

[00:00:43] Moana Theodore
Sure, sure. So, as you mentioned, I direct the Dunedin Study, or Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, as its full title. And for those listeners that don't know much about the Dunedin Study, it's a study of 1,037 babies that were born at Queen Mary Hospital here in Dunedin from the 1st of April, 1972 to the 31st of March, 1973, and then were seen at age three. And it has been going now for more than half a century. So the study members have been seen, and I can do it quite quickly, from 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 18, 21, 26, 32, 38, 45, and we've just finished our age 52 assessments. And it's incredible, and I hope I get to talk about the incredible commitment of our study members and the whānau and the community, as we talk about that.

[00:01:41] Moana Theodore
So, that's a little bit of an introduction to the study. And what I did is, you're right, I brought in two objects, because I always say, there are a number of longitudinal studies around the world. And so people often ask, what's so special about the Dunedin Study? Because it has been described as, obviously, world famous, as you said, but also the most detailed study of human health and development in the world. Now, people often think it's the oldest longitudinal study, and it is in New Zealand, but not internationally. The British birth cohorts, yeah. And people think, is it the biggest study? Because it's so world famous, and it's actually not the biggest study either. And in an age of big data, there are other studies that are much bigger. What makes the Dunedin Study so unique is two things. There's lots of things that make it special, but two things that I always point out.

[00:02:37] Moana Theodore
One is that we see 92%, more than 90% of our study members each time. So, that's the living cohort. And I'll explain why that's so important, I think, when we get into the research findings. So, we see more than 90%. Most other studies in the world are lucky if they see about 70%. And that extra 20%, 25%, are usually people that don't participate in other institutions in our society. So, often science focuses on the healthiest, the ones that can participate not only in society, but also in studies. But we see more than, you know, we see nearly everybody. And what that does is it gives us a full picture of human health and development. And so, the first object I have here is from 1993. It's Time—the Dunedin Study was on the cover of Time International.

[00:03:35] Grant Robertson
So good.

[00:03:36] Moana Theodore
Yeah, so it speaks to the fact that for more than, you know, this is for such a long time, it has been considered world leading. So, that's the first part about this. The other thing I like about it is, I'm not sure viewers can see the title, but it says all they need is love. A unique New Zealand study shows parents the best ways to shape their children's future. And we can talk about how that has been a key part, what happens to us when we're younger and how it impacts on us. So, it's kind of representative of the study members, but also representative of the long term findings. So, that's number one, the participation.

[00:04:14] Grant Robertson
Indeed, yep.

[00:04:15] Moana Theodore
The second part that makes the Dunedin study so unique is that we actually, that those, all those study members that we see, they actually come back to Dunedin, most of them. Nearly all of them come back to Dunedin each time, which is a huge commitment on their part and their family's part. And why that's so important is we get to see them for a day and a half now. So, we ask an awful lot of them and we run them through just a wide range of tests. Why it's so great to have them come in is usually, often studies will be, they'll use Zoom or they'll go out to their study members, but that means they're often restricted to just asking them questions about their lives. What we're able to do is when they come in, we're able to undertake gold standard clinical assessments. So, this is a brain, this is one of my team's brains. He volunteered this morning, too.

[00:05:11] Grant Robertson
Wow.

[00:05:11] Moana Theodore
So, this is actually.

[00:05:12] Grant Robertson
An actual model of an actual brain.

[00:05:14] Moana Theodore
An actual model of an actual brain. Don't ask me, though—I'm not a neuroscientist, so you'll have to. But, so one of the things we do is we do an MRI.

[00:05:22] Grant Robertson
Am I allowed to pick it up?

[00:05:24] Moana Theodore
Sure, yeah. We do a brain scan, an MRI. So, we use gold standard clinical tests. So, we look at lung function, we look at their teeth. So, we have a dentist come in who does a dental scan, one of our professors here at the university, Jonathan Broadbent. So, we do a dental scan, we look at their physical function, we put them through tests, we look at their walking. We look at their cognition through IQ. We really put them through their paces and they are just so generous in all the information they give us. So, two things there. The incredible participation and retention rate and then the amazing science that we're able to do, which is multidisciplinary.

[00:06:07] Grant Robertson
Beautiful. Thank you for bringing those in and it is a really great representation of both the impact of the study and the amazing people who are part of it. Let's start a little bit at the beginning.

[00:06:18] Moana Theodore
Okay.

[00:06:21] Grant Robertson
For those who aren't familiar, what's a short Reader's Digest definition of a longitudinal study?

[00:06:27] Moana Theodore
Ah, okay. It's a study that follows people over time. It doesn't necessarily have to be from birth, although ours is a birth cohort study. But it follows people over time to see what happens to them in their lives or in their health and wellbeing. So, normally our studies, normally studies usually focus on key areas and that's the same with us. So, we look at, we've got some real areas of strength, mental health, I've mentioned respiratory, dental, cardiovascular, their lives, education, employment. And we see what happens to them and things that go on in their lives that might change their trajectories. And why that's really important when it comes to thinking about how we can help people is it helps us to identify times in people's lives where we can look to support them better. So, interventions and programmes.

[00:07:20] Grant Robertson
That's why it talks about what happens particularly, and we'll come to this in a minute, in the early years of life and that. So, great. We've got the basis. We know what a longitudinal study is.

[00:07:31] Moana Theodore
Yeah.

[00:07:32] Grant Robertson
When we think about the Dunedin Study, what are the special values that underpin this longitudinal study?

[00:07:40] Moana Theodore
Yeah. We talk about, I guess I think about the term legacy a lot when I think about this study. You know, what are the values that have been passed down that make it so special? Because you cannot have ongoing participation rates of more than 90% without having relationships, long-term relationships, a commitment to those relationships. I heard someone once say that you cannot bad relationship your way to good data.

[00:08:17] Grant Robertson
That's great.

[00:08:18] Moana Theodore
It's only through good relationships that you can get good data. And that starts first and foremost with our study members. So, the way that we treat our study members and we see people from across society. So, and they have to be comfortable coming into our university, which can be quite, you know, it can be quite a lot to come into, you know, these types of institutions. So, they have to feel really comfortable. It has to be non-judgmental. And a lot of that comes down to the long-term relationships and the commitment of our staff. So, and we go through the day. So, we always test the day. So, I go through the day and others in the team, just to see how it feels to do it.

[00:08:59] Grant Robertson
To be a participant.

[00:09:00] Moana Theodore
Yeah, it's a lot.

[00:09:01] Moana Theodore
We ask a lot. And so, we all go through the day and each time we think about it. And as the study members have aged, we've had to change as well. Some of them can't do it in eight hours. They need a few days. Some people need support people. So, we really put ourselves in their shoes. And that has always been the legacy that's been passed down from the two previous directors as well. So, Dr Phil Silva, OBE, and Distinguished Professor Richie Poulton, both late directors of the study. That ‘do unto others as you'd have done unto you’ has been the long-term approach. So, I think that is critical in terms of having that ongoing relationship. Excellence. So, we try in terms of the science that we do. We're constantly scanning in terms of the latest science and how we can utilise this incredible data asset that we have. There's this amazing data to be able to answer cutting edge questions when it comes to the science.

[00:09:59] Moana Theodore
Making a difference. So, when I speak to the study members, so I get to meet them when they come in. And it takes two years to do a data assessment phase. And I ask them, you know, why are you still doing this? You know, 50 years. It's such a huge commitment. And what I hadn't expected, because I'm not a study member, is a lot of them said, I don't know, I've just always done it. So, if you've always done it, you know, from your earliest... You keep doing what you've always done. Yeah, and I hadn't caught it because I thought, I don't think like a study member, I haven't always done it. But the second most important reason is to make a difference in the lives of others. So, they know, and especially as we move into ageing. So, we're looking at things like starting to look at latest science and dementia biomarkers and things like that. And that is, those are things that are not currently available.

[00:10:45] Moana Theodore
They're not out there. We're looking to see if, you know, the feasibility or if, how we can use those types of things. So, that's the part of the cutting edge science. So, they know that the information and data that they're giving may not actually have an impact on them and their generation. But they think about the future generations as well. So, how can they make a difference?

[00:11:06] Grant Robertson
Can I ask a couple more questions about the study members?

[00:11:10] Moana Theodore
Yeah, please. Please just jump on it.

[00:11:12] Grant Robertson
No, it's so interesting. And I think, you know, I wonder if you could, you said you've gone through the day like a study member does. Could you just give us what, and let's imagine it's a day rather than spread over a week.

[00:11:24] Moana Theodore
Sure.

[00:11:24] Grant Robertson
What's the day of a study member like?

[00:11:26] Moana Theodore
Yeah, absolutely. So, they come into our Dunedin Study unit. It's at 8.30. We do half an hour of consent, which is sometimes a study is just half an hour by itself. We do half an hour of consent because we really want to make sure that the study members, especially for anything new, know what they're getting up for. Also, a number of our study members might struggle with reading. So, we walk them through everything and we give them time to answer questions. Straight after that at 9 o'clock, we ask them to, and this is the generosity of our study members, to give us a urine sample. So, we're looking at kidney function, which we've looked at in the previous age 45 as well. And then they do, so they, there's four different assessments. We can see up to four study members and they go off into the different rooms. So, there's, we call them for short the cardiorespiratory room. We have this horrible machine that tells you how much fat you have everywhere in your body.

[00:12:23] Moana Theodore
We do their blood pressure. We look at their lung function, you know, which we've done since they were little. We ask them all sorts of questions about their health. Or they might go into the sensory session, vision and hearing. We looked at that when they were little. One of the first key findings from our study was the high rates of glue ear that were unknown in the population at the time.

[00:12:43] Grant Robertson
Yeah, that's right. I remember that.

[00:12:44] Moana Theodore
So, and that affects your learning. Now, as the study members age, and people say they're only 52, but as we age and we think about ageing as a process that happens over your life course, vision and hearing obviously start to deteriorate. So, we've started to bring that back in and start to look at that at 45 and 52.

[00:13:00] Grant Robertson
So, we've got two cardiovascular, vision and hearing.

[00:13:02] Moana Theodore
Vision, yeah, yeah.

[00:13:03] Grant Robertson
Number three.

[00:13:03] Moana Theodore
Cognition. And our study members always, you know, your memory, you're being tested on your visual IQ, your speed of processing and things like that. And, of course, we're looking at starting to look at changes in cognition as we age. And then you're going to test me on the last one.

[00:13:20] Grant Robertson
Number four.

[00:13:21] Moana Theodore
Number four, yeah. It's a bit of a catch-all, then, number four. We do a number of physical function things as well. So, we ask them—sorry—about their teeth, which comes back later on. We actually look at lead in their bones, which is something new because we've looked at lead over time. And some other tests as well, grip strength and physical function. They have lunch.

[00:13:43] Grant Robertson
So, we're only up to lunch now.

[00:13:45] Moana Theodore
We're only up to lunch now.

[00:13:46] Grant Robertson
Okay. Thank goodness they have lunch. They'll be tired.

[00:13:49] Moana Theodore
And we actually, we time it so we know how much each minute. So, it's really punchy. So, and then they have lunch and then they go into two longer sessions. One is mental health. And I mentioned mental health. When people say, what's your, you have to remind me to come back to what I was saying about the day. People often say, what is, you know, what do you think is the most important findings of the study? And that's a bit hard. It's like choosing a favourite child. And there's been so many, 1400 reports. But our mental health, we've looked at it since they were really young.

[00:14:19] Grant Robertson
Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing.

[00:14:20] Moana Theodore
And we ask them about all of their mental health. So, we run the full diagnostic schedule. And one of our key findings actually at 45, which I do talk about because I think it's really important, is by the time the study members had reached age 45, do you want to have a guess?

[00:14:38] Moana Theodore
What percentage do you think had a diagnosable mental health condition? Now, it doesn't mean they knew they had a mental health condition. And it includes internalising like depression, anxiety, externalising like alcohol dependence and conduct, and also thought disorders.

[00:14:52] Grant Robertson
Oh, my God. 20?

[00:14:55] Moana Theodore
86%.

[00:14:56] Grant Robertson
86%.

[00:14:57] Moana Theodore
86%.

[00:14:58] Grant Robertson
That's extraordinary, isn't it?

[00:14:59] Moana Theodore
Yeah. What it tells us is that it reduces the stigma, firstly, because what is normal is it's okay not to feel normal. It's okay to, you know, everyone struggles. And I think that's one of the beauties of, it's one of the stories of studies like this.

[00:15:16] Grant Robertson
Yes, it's such an important one. Let's go, the second one in the afternoon with mental health.

[00:15:22] Moana Theodore
And let me just say the other finding of that particular paper was actually those that had it earlier and those that had had harder childhoods have mental health conditions longer. Whereas for other of us, we might be fine for 10 years and then something comes up and then we might be fine for another 10. So that's, we all, we all. Okay, mental health. And we also ask them about the life changes that they have. I do this because there's a calendar. We ask questions right there and then so we don't suffer from memory, which is why we get such high rates like 86%.

[00:15:48] Grant Robertson
Yeah.

[00:15:48] Moana Theodore
Because people don't forget.

[00:15:50] Grant Robertson
Yeah, because it's there.

[00:15:51] Moana Theodore
Yeah. Okay, so we ask them that and then we do what we call a session. This is what the team call it. Everything you shouldn't ask in polite society.

[00:16:00] Grant Robertson
Yeah.

[00:16:00] Moana Theodore
Sexual health. How much do you earn? What do you do? How is it going with your partner? And then we also, just because it's such a long session, we get them to do some dumbbells, some balance tests, which are really predictive of health. So some very simple things. Well, I'm talking MRI here, but actually there's some very simple things we could do just to see health, people's overall function. Then we give them another cup of tea. And then we do the final round robin, which is a blood draw 17, I think, vials that they give us.

[00:16:32] Grant Robertson
Crikey.

[00:16:33] Moana Theodore
And then, so a lot of blood. And then we do the dental. So they go back and they do the full dental. And I suppose this is the hardest part for a lot of people. So blood, a lot of people struggle with that. The dental as well. We ask them about sleep.

[00:16:49] Grant Robertson
Yep.

[00:16:50] Moana Theodore
As we get older. Things like that. And then we just have a conversation with them. But that's the first day.

[00:16:55] Grant Robertson
Yeah.

[00:16:56] Moana Theodore
The second day they do MRI scans. We do retinal imaging, take photos of their retina. And we also do something where we put a wristband on them to see their exposure to the environment.

[00:17:09] Grant Robertson
Extraordinary. And only touching the surface of it. It's a remarkable thing. And I just want to do a quick thing on the participants and then we're going to move to talk about impact.

[00:17:19] Moana Theodore
Sure.

[00:17:21] Grant Robertson
90 plus percent people coming back. You said that's built on relationships.

[00:17:25] Moana Theodore
Yeah.

[00:17:25] Grant Robertson
The richness of that data source.

[00:17:28] Moana Theodore
Yeah.

[00:17:29] Grant Robertson
What should New Zealanders think about our participants in this study? What would you want the message to be?

[00:17:36] Moana Theodore
Yeah. Oh, there's so much.

[00:17:39] Grant Robertson
Short.

[00:17:41] Moana Theodore
Short. Thanks, Grant. Well, first of all, the study wouldn't be possible without the participants. But also their family and the community.

[00:17:49] Grant Robertson
Yep.

[00:17:50] Moana Theodore
Because when it started, it was volunteers. When the study started, it really is the smell of an oily rag. It's a classic Kiwi story. It was done in Knox Church. It couldn't have been done without the community. It is the community and the whānau. Because the parents that are still, they often say, oh, there's another phase. You've got to get back in. So it's the study members' incredible commitment. And people think, oh, they must love coming in. Some of them don't enjoy it at all. They're poked and prodded.

[00:18:15] Grant Robertson
Yeah, yeah.

[00:18:15] Moana Theodore
They ask sensitive questions about their lives. But they still come on in. So that incredible generosity. Something we talk about at the university is town and gown. And I always think the Dunedin Study is a wonderful example of how the town has really upheld. And you talk to lots of people. And once you say the Dunedin Study, most people in Dunedin will say, oh, my cousin used to work here.

[00:18:41] Grant Robertson
Exactly.

[00:18:41] Moana Theodore
My mum was a volunteer. It is the beautiful example.

[00:18:44] Grant Robertson
I feel like the way the name has shortened down is almost a representation of that kind of sense of ownership of the study.

[00:18:52] Moana Theodore
Yeah.

[00:18:52] Grant Robertson
I want to move to impact.

[00:18:53] Moana Theodore
Okay.

[00:18:54] Grant Robertson
And you said before, you don't want to choose your favourite child about the impact. You mentioned mental health, and I think that's really interesting.

[00:19:02] Moana Theodore
Yeah.

[00:19:02] Grant Robertson
I wonder if you want to say something about the impact over time.

[00:19:05] Moana Theodore
Sure.

[00:19:06] Grant Robertson
Because it takes a long time to produce the studies and the data that come out. So, obviously, the early big impactful findings are going to be about childhood.

[00:19:14] Moana Theodore
Yes.

[00:19:14] Grant Robertson
And then, as you know, we're going to move on. I wonder if you want to pick something from perhaps, you know, not all the phases, but, you know, childhood, middle 20s, 30s, and now to today, the 40s being the last one you'll have data from. Could you pick me something from each of those that tells a story about the impact? So, we'll start with the younger age.

[00:19:37] Moana Theodore
Yeah. And then I want to do one overall.

[00:19:39] Grant Robertson
Please.

[00:19:40] Moana Theodore
Which will come back to this if I can.

[00:19:41] Grant Robertson
We'll bring you to that at the end.

[00:19:42] Moana Theodore
You'll remind me.

[00:19:42] Grant Robertson
You'll have to keep the answer short until that happens.

[00:19:44] Moana Theodore
Yeah, yeah. So, you're right. We've kept, I said, we've kept the same things over time. That's what you need to do in a longitudinal study. Anyone thinking to do one, you've got to keep the same things, otherwise you can't track them. But it changes with their ages. So, when they were young, we looked at their physical health. It started by looking at, you know, the idea of what's happening to our children in the 1970s. Some were being saved earlier. So, it really looked at their health. I mentioned glue ear. So, I'll stick with that. But also injury prevention. It did a lot in regards to the need for those safety mats and playgrounds.

[00:20:15] Grant Robertson
Yeah, that's right.

[00:20:15] Moana Theodore
Shorter jug cords. You know, monitoring of water temperature and things like that. When you get into adolescence, as you know, and then there's a lot of young people here at the university, we started to look at their behaviours and their changes there. And so, obviously mental health, really crucial. But also things like, you know, their behaviours. So, another, you know, we had, by the time they were in their early 20s, you know, more than 80% that said they had used cannabis.

[00:20:42] Grant Robertson
Yeah.

[00:20:43] Moana Theodore
Now, if that's the norm, then how do we think about it? And the way the studies thought about it is in terms of how does it affect our study members in terms of their health. If it's normative, if a lot of people use it and some use it and it's problematic, then what can we say about that? So, we look at their behaviours. By the time it hit about 26, it started to trace things like cardiovascular health, those long-term chronic health conditions. And now we're moving into ageing. And people think they're only 50, you know, they're only 50.

[00:21:11] Grant Robertson
I know.

[00:21:11] Moana Theodore
They're not that old.

[00:21:12] Grant Robertson
I'm the same age as the study members and we need to do this. We are ageing.

[00:21:17] Moana Theodore
And what we've been able to see is change over time. So, we are able to look at how, and some people are ageing based on what we can tell about their bodies, and I've mentioned all the different clinical tests we've done, are ageing faster than others. And the prediction of that comes back to, people think, oh, yoga, you know, and yes, and yes, if we can, and going to the gym and all those sorts of lifestyle things. But actually what happens too when you're young as well. So, and that comes back to that childhood point, which was that, you know, things like childhood poverty, isolation in childhood. These are all findings from the study. Child maltreatment. And then actually the real benefits of early childhood education actually go all the way to tell us to predict how we're ageing now.

[00:22:07] Moana Theodore
And so one of the key things has always been the importance of those first 2,000 days. If we are supporting children and whānau early, it pays dividends throughout the life course.

[00:22:20] Grant Robertson
And the impact of that, I can tell you, as a person who was sitting around the cabinet table, when we were deciding to fund an intervention in early childhood education, we did that on the basis of your data and the data from this study.

[00:22:35] Moana Theodore
Thank you, yeah.

[00:22:36] Grant Robertson
And that, you know, it was incredibly powerful to have a New Zealand-based piece of research that said if you implement this programme for early childhood education, it will support better outcomes. It was a behavioural-based programme. Better outcomes. That's an amazing impact. Do you reflect about that often, about the reality of the research you've done turning into something that a three-year-old at a kindergarten in Ōpōtiki will be experiencing?

[00:23:08] Moana Theodore
Yeah. I think that comes back to why we do it. It's our commitment to the study members when they say, I do it to make a difference. And that's what we're committed to. You know, how do we get this data and beyond the scientific findings to make a difference? Because that's what they ask us to do and that's why they do it. So it comes back to that fundamental relationship from the study members. And I go back to that they're from all walks of life. You know, some of the most touching stories are from our study members that have had the hardest lives. You know, and one of them, you know, who had been in and out of institutions, sort of said to our cohort manager one time, you know, I haven't done much in my life, but I have done this. You know, that legacy, I'll go back to the word legacy, because some of them will call it their legacy as well. And it's often those that have had the hardest lives that get the most meaning from being part of the study.

[00:23:59] Grant Robertson
What's the biggest barrier to making an impact with the work of the study?

[00:24:03] Moana Theodore
Can I ask you to unpack that slightly?

[00:24:08] Grant Robertson
So this is an extraordinary amount of data and information. And you said, you know, more than a thousand articles and so on emerging from this. Some policies being changed as a result. But are there things that you reflect and say we could do more with the data if?

[00:24:28] Moana Theodore
Yeah, absolutely. We talk about it as a treasure trove. So, you know, people will come to us sometimes. And that is a really great example, the early childhood programme, which looked at self-regulation. That was kind of in the 2010s when someone said, actually, we think that the programmes that we're running internationally, and there was one in America, is not necessarily impacting on IQ. It's impacting on other life things like there's been less crime or less pregnancies. And so we said, well, we've got data on self-regulation. Let's look at it. So there's a treasure trove. Same with lead. Same with other things. We've been able to say, hold on, we've got the data there. I think it's difficult. It sometimes feels difficult in Aotearoa New Zealand because of our, and I hate to do it, but our research funding and the funding for early career researchers and PhDs, that we know we've got a lot of information that we could do more with, but we are restricted by resource.

[00:25:25] Moana Theodore
And I think that's about, and there are changes going on, as we know, within the research system, but I do think that is about collaboration and how to work better with the data, taking into account how data is shifting as well. So there are solutions to it, but we don't necessarily have, you know, the ability to do some of the testing. We need to fundraise to do those things. So I think that can be hard when you know.

[00:25:54] Grant Robertson
Yeah, but it's a common issue about how we support that research that takes a long time, and we need the pipeline of early and mid-career researchers.

[00:26:03] Moana Theodore
Yeah.

[00:26:04] Grant Robertson
We're coming to the end. You wanted to say something about the overall impact of the study.

[00:26:12] Moana Theodore
The overall impact?

[00:26:13] Grant Robertson
That was what you said when I said, we were looking at the age course, you said there's something you wanted to say about the overall.

[00:26:17] Moana Theodore
The overall impact was actually from child to ageing across the life course, that you've got to, you know, where to invest. And we often think about where to invest. And I would say young, you know, what you did when you supported that programme.

[00:26:33] Grant Robertson
So that's the big lesson, invest in the first 2,000 days, because that's going to define.

[00:12:38] Moana Theodore
What happens to us when we're young really does have a long-term impact. There are other times in the life course that we can intervene. It's not, you know, there's so many times that people's lives can change and so many ways that we can help people. But that first period of time that our study has certainly shown in other studies, the importance of that. And then looking at other times, youth mental health, right? Things like that.

[00:26:57] Grant Robertson
Things that flow through. Moana, thank you. I want to thank you and your team. It's an extraordinary thing that you do. This is a world leading study, but it's one that's so fundamentally based in the wellbeing of your participants and of the community around. So really want to acknowledge the amazing work that you and the team do. I look forward to the ongoing findings and the further cohorts that we will bring through. So thank you so much.

[00:27:23] Moana Theodore
Thank you. And I just want to say, you know, we talk about this as a real privilege that myself and my team have. It's a privilege every day to work when the study members come in. Like we feel really privileged and proud just to be a part of the Dunedin study like so many other people do. Our participants, the university who have really supported us. I have to say that as well, seeing we're talking about the university, we do this as part of the community and then the community as well, that real town and gown. So thank you.

[00:27:49] Grant Robertson
Kia ora Moana. Now, you have 90 seconds as a person who's been around the University of Otago for a while.

[00:27:56] Moana Theodore
Yeah.

[00:27:56] Grant Robertson
What would you like to say to the Vice-Chancellor or to ask the Vice-Chancellor?

[00:28:00] Moana Theodore
No, I think I would just like to say that it is a real taonga, this study. You know, and how do we continue to be kaitiaki for the study? How do we continue to look after the study? You know, and how do we grow it as well? You know, and I know people use taonga often and they think of the direct translation, which is a treasure, which is kind of a sparkly, which is true as well. But, you know, I always think about taonga tuku iho, which is that a taonga being something that's passed down from generation to generation for the benefit of others and future generations. And that's what we have here. We have something remarkable, a real taonga and a real asset. And we need to continue to work together to protect that and to grow it.

[00:28:52] Grant Robertson
Thank you. Thanks for joining us on 30 with the VC, a series where we look at the amazing mahi being done at the University of Otago - Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, and the people who make it happen. Please join us again. Nō reira. Tēnā koutou. Tēnā koutou. Kia ora koutou katoa.

[00:29:09] Moana Theodore
Kia ora.