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In February 2005, The Cancer Council Victoria released data on the level of deaths caused by smoking in every local government area across the state. The data was prepared by The Cancer Council Victoria's Cancer Epidemiology Centre. It shows that the leading cause of preventable death in every local government area in Victoria is smoking. Smoking caused deaths in every area of the state outstrip other major avoidable deaths caused by alcohol, other drugs and road deaths, even when combined.

Where did the data come from?

Details of all deaths in Victoria between the four years 1999 and 2002 were obtained from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. This data included information about gender, age of death, place of residence and cause of death. Each death was given a proportional cause due to individual diseases caused by smoking (which were summed to provide total smoking-caused deaths), and other avoidable causes. These included deaths due to alcohol (including alcohol-caused road deaths) and other drugs. Total road deaths were also counted from the data. Individual deaths were then allocated to local government areas.

Read more about the methodology.

What data is available?

Data for each local government area, each Department of Human Services region and each Primary Care Partnership catchment were developed to compare deaths due to smoking and other avoidable causes within the area. It also compares these deaths with the state average.

What did the data show for Victoria?

On average out of every 1000 deaths in Victoria:

Was there much variation across the state?

There was a significant variation in the level of deaths caused by smoking in different parts of the state. The percentage of deaths due to smoking for different local government areas in the state ranged from as low as 8.2% to as high as 15.2%.

What factors cause the variations?

On average, during the period covered by the figures, about 19% of Victorians smoke, but the rate varied for different groups in the total population. For example, smoking rates are higher for groups such as:

Therefore, the demographic profile of an area contributes to the prevalence of smoking in that area. So, if a community has had a high proportion of a group or groups that have high smoking rates, the level of smoking in that community will probably be higher than other areas. Higher levels of smoking in a community over a period of time increases the number of illnesses caused by smoking.

It's important to remember that illnesses caused by smoking usually take many years to develop, and so are more likely to be found in older members of the population. Age is another factor that affects the percentage of deaths due to smoking in a community. The proportion of older people in a given area will affect the proportion of deaths from different causes which will, in turn, impact on the percentage of deaths caused by smoking.

Does where you live matter?

Where you live does not increase the risk of contracting a disease caused by smoking. The only thing that can affect someone's risk of contracting a smoking-caused disease is whether they smoke, or have been smokers. The amount they smoke, the length of time they smoke for, and the length of time since they have quit are all factors that affect their likelihood of becoming sick as a result of their smoking. Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (the smoke from other people's cigarettes) has also been proven to cause a range of illnesses in non-smokers.

Are country areas worse than city areas?

Regional areas do not necessarily have higher levels of deaths caused by smoking than metropolitan areas. There were a number of regional local government areas where high levels of deaths caused by smoking were recorded, but there were also several where the percentage of smoking-caused deaths was among the lowest in the State.

Does the data identify an individual?

No, because of the way the deaths for each cause are calculated, very small numbers in some tables do not compromise any individual's privacy. The numbers are cumulated fractions of deaths rather than actual people. For example, a reported single smoking-caused death from stroke in the Shire of Nowhere may not indicate that John Smith of this Shire died of a smoking stroke but rather that Jack Brown aged 41, Fred Jones aged 58 and Mary Smith aged 37 each died of stroke in Nowhere Shire. The sum of their aetiological fractions (0.36, 0.33 and 0.32 respectively being the proportion of deaths from stroke in their age/sex groups that are due to tobacco) is 1.1 - rounded to 1 in summary tables. Therefore the one reported death is not identifying one individual in any way.

How can this data be used?

The available data sets by Local Government Area, Primary Care Partnerships and Department of Health regions, can support collaborative local area planning for both Municipal Public Health Plans and Community Health Plans. This data could be distributed to Public Health Planners, Social Planners, Environmental Health Officers and Health Promotion Officers within your Local Council and healthcare community. The data will be valuable in supporting the inclusion of strategies at a local level to address tobacco use, for example within your Municipal Public Health Plan and Community Health Plan.

Health plans need to support tobacco control as a priority health issue. This can be done through the inclusion of strategies to protect non smokers from tobacco smoke and encourage smokers to quit. This is best addressed using a mix strategies which could include:

We can help you include tobacco control strategies in public health planning. Contact us at tobaccotragedy@quit.org.au.