Your home town can affect your health

SYDNEY - The place you call home can affect your likelihood of being a smoker, overweight or obese, according a report released Friday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The Australian Health Survey found that people living in outer regional and remote areas had higher rates of daily smoking in 2011-12 (22 percent) compared with those living in major cities (15 percent).

People living in areas of most disadvantage were even more likely to smoke every day than those living in areas of least disadvantage -- a gap of one in four compared with one in ten.

"While rates of daily smoking in remote areas of Australia have dropped over time, they are still significantly higher than the rates in major cities of Australia a decade ago," said Louise Gates, Director of Health at the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The survey also found links between remoteness and social- economic disadvantage and obesity -- with seven out of ten adults living in outer regional and remote areas overweight or obese compared to six out of ten in cities.

However, the survey found that the relationship between obesity and socio-economic status was not the same for both women and men.

While women living in areas of most disadvantage were more likely to be overweight or obese (64 percent) compared with women living in areas of least disadvantage (48 percent), men had similar obesity rates despite their level of disadvantage.

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