Northern NSW residents are still over-represented when it comes to smoking cigarettes

The Daily Examiner, 4 June 2019, p.7:

Northern NSW residents are still over-represented when it comes to smoking cigarettes.

Despite years of warnings and anti-smoking campaigns, statistics taken in 2016 reveal 20.3 per cent of population in the North Coast Local Health District is smoking.

The rate has remained largely unchanged for years as a report released by the Cancer Institute showed the number of smokers in 2011 stood at 20.4 per cent

This contrasted with statewide smoking trends which showed the number of smokers had dropped considerably over the past decade, down from almost 20 percent to just 15.2 per cent in 2017.

There was a clear difference between metropolitan and regional areas, with city health districts recording bigger falls and one regional health district, Western NSW, recording an increase of four per cent since 2012.

Males aged 25-34 were the most likely to be lighting up as 25.9 per cent of the group were smokers compared to 11.8 per cent of women the same age.

In fact, the only age group in which women out-smoked men was in the 55-64 and 65-74 categories and in both cases it was only a one per cent difference.

A higher proportion of women reported smoking while pregnant, with Northern NSW recording a rate five per cent above the state average of 8.3 per cent......