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. 2009 Oct 31:8:37.
doi: 10.1186/1475-9276-8-37.

Smoking prevalence trends in Indigenous Australians, 1994-2004: a typical rather than an exceptional epidemic

David P Thomas  1
Affiliations

Smoking prevalence trends in Indigenous Australians, 1994-2004: a typical rather than an exceptional epidemic

David P Thomas. Int J Equity Health. .

Abstract

Background: In Australia, national smoking prevalence has successfully fallen below 20%, but remains about 50% amongst Indigenous Australians. Australian Indigenous tobacco control is framed by the idea that nothing has worked and a sense of either despondency or the difficulty of the challenge.

Methods: This paper examines the trends in smoking prevalence of Australian Indigenous men and women aged 18 and over in three large national cross-sectional surveys in 1994, 2002 and 2004.

Results: From 1994 to 2004, Indigenous smoking prevalence fell by 5.5% and 3.5% in non-remote and remote men, and by 1.9% in non-remote women. In contrast, Indigenous smoking prevalence rose by 5.7% in remote women from 1994 to 2002, before falling by 0.8% between 2002 and 2004. Male and female Indigenous smoking prevalences in non-remote Australia fell in parallel with those in the total Australian population. The different Indigenous smoking prevalence trends in remote and non-remote Australia can be plausibly explained by the typical characteristics of national tobacco epidemic curves, with remote Indigenous Australia just at an earlier point in the epidemic.

Conclusion: Reducing Indigenous smoking need not be considered exceptionally difficult. Inequities in the distribution of smoking related-deaths and illness may be reduced by increasing the exposure and access of Indigenous Australians, and other disadvantaged groups with high smoking prevalence, to proven tobacco control strategies.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Prevalence of smoking among Australians aged 18 and over, 1994 to 2004-Indigenous men and women in remote and non-remote areas compared with all Australian men, all Australian women. Sources: Weighted data from National Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Survey 1994, the National Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Social Survey 2002 and the National Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Health Survey 2004; and Winstanley and White (2008).
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