Tobacco in Western Australia: patterns of smoking among adults from 1974 to 1991

Patterns of smoking in Western Australia since 1974 were examined using four data sets. Consistency between sets of data was high for adults in the various categories of smoker status. Having established consistency, the patterns revealed by the surveys conducted by the Health Department of Western Australia were examined in more detail. According to these data, prevalence fell from 31.2 per cent in 1984 to 23.9 per cent in 1991 but was still higher among males, at 27.3 per cent, than among females, at 23.4 per cent. Although the sex‐specific prevalence levels were converging, the difference was still significant ( P = 0.01). While patterns of smoking in Western Australia generally reflected those in Australia as a whole, some differences were detected. The variation in prevalence according to level of education among women became less pronounced: in 1991, prevalence was 25.5 per cent among women who had completed an apprenticeship or trade certificate compared with 21.7 per cent among women who had undertaken some university studies, the corresponding figures for 1984 being 31.1 per cent and 24.8 per cent. Differences in prevalence among young women between state and national data were also noted. Between 1987 and 1991 the prevalence of smoking among women in the 20‐ to 24‐year age group decreased from 41.2 per cent to 29.0 per cent. This is at odds with findings from the data collected by the Anti Cancer Council of Victoria which indicate that, in 1989, the prevalence of smoking among Australian women aged 20 to 24 years was 37.7 per cent, which was higher than the prevalence in any other male or female age group.