Australian women paying a high price for legacy of smoking
Release date: 24 January 2008
Australian women paying a high health price for legacy of cigarette smoking
Australian women are paying a high health price for an era when their smoking rates were catching up to men and cigarettes were sold with little or no curbs on tobacco marketing.
Private health insurer MBF today released figures that show lung cancer claims for women have increased by 21%. The increase in these claims for women aged 60 to 74 is even higher at 23%. Lung cancer claims for men increased by 24%.
MBF chief medical officer, Dr Christine Bennett, said the big increases in lung cancer claims for men and women in the five years from 2002 to 2006 confirmed the serious health risks associated with smoking.
"Increased lung cancer claims for men were to be expected because of the much higher smoking rate among adult males of up to 70% in past decades," Dr Bennett said.
"But the growing number of lung cancer claims for women reflects the health and social impact of a period when the female smoking rate began catching up with that of men."
"Our claims data shows that women are paying a high health price for taking up smoking when there were few restrictions on cigarette sales or curbs on smoking in public places."
The MBF claims information shows that 500 females were hospitalised with lung cancer in 2006 – 84 more than in 2002, an increase of 21%. During the same five-year period, lung cancer claims for men increased 24% from 462 in 2002 to 571 in 2006.
"Australia had made significant progress in the past 20 years in reducing smoking rates but we are still experiencing an unfortunate healthcare legacy."
According to OECD findings, based on data supplied by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), Australia has cut its smoking rate from 35.4% of adults in 1983 to 17.7% in 2004. Australia has the fifth lowest adult smoking rate after Sweden, USA, Portugal and Canada.
The healthcare legacy of smoking related cancers was revealed recently in an AIHW report commissioned by the National Cancer Strategies Group. It projected that the number of new lung cancer cases for women is expected to increase 38% from 2,891 in 2001 to around 4,000 in 2011.
"Smoking-related health issues confronting so many Australian women sends a strong message to young women and men for that matter to resist taking up smoking in the first place in spite of it being glamorised in movies and being made to appear normal because of the open display of cigarettes in retail outlets," Dr Bennett said.
