This study investigated the association between residential mobility and cardiovascular disease hospitalisations in Auckland, New Zealand. The study researchers used an encrypted National Health Index number to link individual-level data recorded in routine health datasets (e.g., Primary Health Organisation [PHO] registrations, pharmaceutical dispensing, hospitalisations and mortality) to construct a cohort of approximately 670,000 patients aged ≥30 years old living in Auckland, between 1 January 2006 and 31 December 2012. Residential mobility was measured by changes in the census Meshblock of usual residence, obtained from the PHO database for every calendar quarter of the study period. The NZDep2006 area deprivation score at the start and end of a participant’s inclusion in the study was used to measure deprivation mobility. In multivariable binomial regression models that controlled for age, gender, deprivation and ethnicity, movers were 1.22 times more likely than stayers to be hospitalised for CVD. Using the 5 × 5 deprivation origin-destination matrix to model a patient’s risk of CVD based on upward, downward or sideways deprivation mobility, movers within the least deprived (NZDep2006 Quintile 1) areas were 10% less likely than stayers to be hospitalised for CVD, while movers within the most deprived (NZDep2006 Quintile 5) areas were 45% more likely than stayers to have had their first CVD hospitalisation in 2006–2012 (RR 1.45). Participants who moved upward also had higher relative risks of having a CVD event, although their risk was lower than those observed for participants experiencing downward deprivation mobility.
