SHORT REPORT Heterogeneity of deprivation within very small areas

Area based measures of deprivation are used for resourceallocation and research. In both these uses there is con-tinuing debate about the likely proportion of deprived people who would be missed if area based indices were used for interventions or targeting resources.1–4 This report uses the same source deprivation variables at area and individual levels to quantify the degree of deprivation heterogeneity within very small areas using data from the New Zealand 1996 cen-sus. METHODS AND RESULTS Area deprivation is characterised by the NZDep96 index of deprivation for small areas. The small areas were constructed from one, or several neighbouring, “meshblocks ” and 91.5% contained between 100 and 200 people. The small areas were designed to minimise local heterogeneity while yielding a robust measure of deprivation in the neighbourhood. NZDep96 is derived from age/sex standardised proportion