Tobacco use

In 2018, 11.9% of the total disease burden among Indigenous Australians was due to tobacco use. It was the leading risk factor contributing to total disease burden, deaths and fatal burden, and the 4th leading contributor to non-fatal burden.

These estimates reflect the amount of disease burden that could have been avoided if Indigenous Australians had not used tobacco or been exposed to second hand smoke in their lifetime.

Tobacco use was causally linked to the burden of 41 individual diseases including: 19 types of cancer; 7 cardiovascular diseases; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); and asthma (see ABDS 2018 Risk factor estimates for Indigenous Australians data table S1).

How much burden was attributable to tobacco use?

In 2018 among Indigenous Australians, tobacco use was responsible for 89% of the total disease burden due to lung cancer, 88% of the burden due to laryngeal cancer and 83% of the burden due to COPD.

Tobacco use contributed the most to fatal burden among Indigenous Australians, with 835 deaths (23% of all deaths) in 2018.

Note that the following visualisation displays the top 10 linked diseases due to tobacco use by the selected measure.

This interactive data visualisation shows the burden attributable to tobacco use by linked disease among Indigenous Australians. The main section shows a horizontal bar graph which can be customised to report data according to year, sex and measure of attributable burden. Each bar represents the attributable burden of the disease linked to tobacco use.

How did burden attributable to tobacco use vary by age and sex?

Tobacco use contributed to total disease burden across all age groups, including infants and young children exposed to second hand smoke. Most of the tobacco use attributable burden among Indigenous Australians occurred among those aged 45 and over, with almost 60% of the burden being in people aged 45–64. In 2018, the largest number of deaths attributed to tobacco use (402) occurred in the 45–64 age group.

Indigenous males experienced a greater amount of burden attributable to tobacco use compared with Indigenous females.

This interactive data visualisation shows the amount of burden attributable to tobacco use among Indigenous Australians by age group and linked disease. The main section shows a stacked bar graph which can be customised to report data according to year, sex, disease group and measure of attributable burden. Each bar represents the attributable burden within a particular age group. Each bar is also split into separate components with each colour representing a disease linked to tobacco use.

How has disease burden attributable to tobacco use changed over time?

The age-standardised rate of total burden attributable to tobacco use (from all linked diseases) among Indigenous Australians decreased by 11% between 2003 and 2018 (from 65.8 to 58.8 DALY per 1,000 population). The rate of deaths associated with tobacco use decreased by 17% between 2003 and 2018 (from 2.7 to 2.2 deaths per 1,000).

This interactive data visualisation shows the rate of burden attributable to tobacco use among Indigenous Australians by year. The main section shows a horizontal bar graph which can be customised to report data according to year, sex and measure of attributable burden. Each bar represents the attributable burden within a particular year due to tobacco use.

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