Health in Hunter New England	Table of contents Chapter introduction On this page: Data table Commentary References Print version Downloadable files
	Health related behaviours Introduction

Introduction

In this chapter

• Use among adults
• Death and illness attributable to alcohol

• General Practitioner visit in the last 12 months
• General Practitioner visit in the last two weeks

• Fruit and vegetable consumption among adults
• Fruit and vegetable consumption among children
• Breastfeeding
• Overweight and obesity among adults
• Physical activity among adults

• Among adults
• Intention to quit smoking
• No intention to quit smoking
• Households with smokers
• Death and illness attributable to smoking

• Among adults
• Among children
• Skin checks

Introduction

Good health enhances the quality of human life and benefits the community. The opportunity to participate in and contribute to society is maximised in a healthy population. Organisational, economic, and environmental factors have major influences on the health of individuals. Health related behaviours can also contribute significantly to good health and can particularly impact on rates of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, cancer, and other conditions that account for much of the burden of morbidity and mortality.

Measuring and reporting health related behaviours provide important information for planning and evaluating population health programmes. The health related behaviours described in this chapter include: sun protection, smoking, alcohol use, physical activity, food consumption (and the interaction of these two behaviours) resulting in measures of overweight and obesity. This chapter includes information from the 1997/1998, 2002, 2003, 2004 NSW Health Surveys; the 2001 NSW Child Health Survey; the ABS National Health Surveys; the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare; NSW Health Inpatient Statistics Collection, and ABS mortality data.

The information presented should be interpreted with caution, because the data used come from a range of surveys that were conducted using different methods of data collection.

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