Dr Hood said she knew of people in the area whose homes were so cold they had icicles inside.
"People are experiencing really tough childhoods and lives.
"They are living with poverty, violence and addiction.''
However, such deprivation was not recognised by the socioeconomic index, which was used by social services and district health boards as a tool to assist in resource allocation, because the index was measuring Corstorphine in a group with "vastly different'' suburbs, including St Clair.
The index measures geographic areas in area units - areas measured by Statistics New Zealand that can have multiple suburbs within them which are physically close to one another.
Each area unit received a deprivation rating based on income, employment, communications, transport, support, qualifications, home ownership and living space.
Dr Hood said the fact the NZDep ranked every area unit on a scale of 1-10 (10 being most deprived and 1 being least) was problematic because it could stop resources reaching suburbs most in need.
The area labelled Corstorphine East was in the "comfortably-off'' suburb of Kew which meant it had a rating of four on the index, while Corstorphine East was recognised as being in Concord, increasing its deprivation rating by five, she said.
The index also grouped the "deprived'' suburb of Corstorphine in the same area unit as the "wealthy'' suburb of St Clair.
"Many Corstorphine households are as deprived as households in the poorest areas of Northland and South Auckland, only colder.''
New Zealand Deprivation Index author Prof Peter Crampton said he expected Dr Hood was correct in her view there was a discrepancy between the name Corstorphine as applied to the index and the geographic interpretation of the suburb by residents and land agents.
He did not believe the discrepancy would adversely affect the allocation of resources to Corstorphine.
"This is a disadvantaged community in my opinion, but that is based on the cumulative effects of decisions made over many years.''
Social services and town planners would apply "local knowledge'' when deciding where resources should go which meant the deprivation rating played a less significant role, he said.
Statistics New Zealand geospatial statistical analyst Rachel Livingston said where possible, area unit names referred to geographic features. However, they were not intended to align exactly to New Zealand Geographic Board place names or suburbs.
"A minor review of area units is undertaken before each census and, until now, the last major review of area units was undertaken in the early 1990s.''
A current review would be complete in October 2017.
"Yes, it is possible that the Corstorphine West and Corstorphine East area unit names or boundaries could be changed,'' she said.
