Lessons about smoking

Press, 9 July 1983, Page 13

Lessons about smoking

PA Wellington Lessons learnt about the smoking habits of New Zealanders through the census in 1976 and 1981 may now assist other nations in developing smoking control programmes, according to the medical director of the National Heart Foundation, Dr David Hay. Dr Hay will present a paper on the results of an analysis of the changes in smoking patterns to the

Fifth World Conference on Smoking and Health in Winnipeg, Canada, next week. There was sure to be much interest in the significant changes revealed, he said. “Very few countries have data on the smoking habits of more than two million people of varying ethnic origins and the' lessons we have learnt may assist other nations in developing smoking control pro-

grammes,” Dr Hay said. “Smoking rates have fallen significantly in New Zealand men and women of all age-groups except for an increase in young women aged 20 to 24 years. “A total of 70 per cent of Maori women of that age are smokers, a quite alarming figure in view of the high incidence of smokingrelated diseases which already exists among Maori women,” said Dr Hay.