Australia: Tobacco Outlet''s Widespread in Disadvantaged Areas  

Source from:  Scitech Discovery Centre‎ (au)  07/01/2013

A RECENT study has found significantly more tobacco outlets in poorer areas of WA, with strongest associations observed in regional areas.

While overseas evidence has indicated higher densities of tobacco outlets in lower socioeconomic (SES) areas, this is the first Australian study to confirm an association between lower SES and higher tobacco outlet density.

UWA Centre for the Built Environment and Health deputy director and Associate Professor Lisa Wood says "at present, there are around 3,900 licenses to sell tobacco in WA, and 40,000 nationally".

"With Australia's progress in curbing many of the other factors that can influence smoking, restricting availability should be the next 'cab off the rank'," A/Prof Wood says.

The researchers obtained data on tobacco outlet density from the WA Department of Health's geocoding of Cancer Council WA's 2011 research.

This enabled them to identify outlets across the entire state and individual suburbs and towns within the metropolitan and regional areas.

The researchers also sourced SES data from the ABS's 2006 Index of Relative Socioeconomic Advantage and Disadvantage (IRSAD) and categorised it into quartiles (very low, low, high and very high), with suburb and town population levels determined from the 2006 census.

There were 911 suburbs and towns across WA; 296 in the metropolitan region and 608 in regional areas.

"In all of these configurations, there was a clear and significant negative association between SES and tobacco outlet density, with tobacco outlet density markedly higher in lower SES suburbs/towns," A/Prof Wood says.

"The strongest associations were observed in regional WA, where tobacco outlet density per capita for very low SES suburbs/towns was more than five times higher than that of very high IRSAD suburbs/towns".

In the metropolitan area, the density was about twice when very low and very high SES suburbs were compared.

These results suggest the 'ready availability' in disadvantaged areas may lead to more impulse purchasing and failed attempts to quit.

A/Prof Wood recommends a gradual phase in the reduction of existing outlets, as well as "introducing a licensing application process similar to liquor licences, where the number of existing outlets in a given suburb can be taken into account".

The researchers will expand on these results by investigating how tobacco outlet density and local availability relates to smoking rates in WA teenagers, and smoking rates and smoking-related health problems in adults in WA. Enditem