Rate My Professor Caroline Fyfe

Caroline Fyfe is a Research Fellow with the He Kāinga Oranga Housing and Health Research Programme in the Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington. She completed her PhD in Public Health at the University of Otago in 2021, with a thesis titled From Hearth to Health: An investigation into the health impacts of the Warm Up New Zealand insulation programme. This study utilized data from over 200,000 houses participating in the government's EECA subsidy programme from 2009 to 2014, demonstrating an 11% overall reduction in hospital admissions for insulated homes compared to a control group, and stronger effects for cold-related conditions including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and heart disease. Prior to her doctorate, which she began part-time at Massey University before transferring full-time to Otago, Fyfe earned a Master of Public Health from Massey University on the cost-effectiveness of community water fluoridation in New Zealand. She holds an undergraduate degree in Environmental Science and Economics from Manchester Metropolitan University. After moving to New Zealand from the UK 18 years ago, she worked as a research and education coordinator for a home insulation provider in Christchurch and studied environmental health indicators at Massey University.

Fyfe's academic interests center on applying economic and geospatial analyses to the intersections of health, housing, and the environment. Her research includes evaluations of the EECA Warmer Kiwi Homes heat pump subsidy programme and the effects of COVID-19 on the relationship between online accommodation platforms like Airbnb and New Zealand's private rental housing market. Following her PhD, she joined Motu Economic and Public Policy Research in February 2021 as part of the Warmer Kiwis Study team while dedicating time to He Kāinga Oranga projects. Key publications feature Association between home insulation and hospital admission rates: Retrospective cohort study using linked data from a national intervention programme in The BMJ (2020); Retrofitting home insulation reduces incidence and severity of chronic respiratory disease in Indoor Air (2022); Increased Incidence of Legionellosis after Improved Diagnostic Testing, New Zealand, 2018–2021 in Emerging Infectious Diseases (2023); and An examination of the growth of Airbnb in New Zealand and its impact on the private rental housing market: 2016-2021 in New Zealand Geographer (2023). Her contributions provide evidence supporting housing retrofits to improve public health outcomes.