Spotlight: Indigenous health
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Smoking is known to be a leading contributor to disease and death among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults. A new study has now put a number on it, finding that smoking causes 50 per cent of deaths among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults aged 45 years and over, and 37 per cent of deaths at any age.
The study, from the Australian National University, reveals Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who smoked died 10 years earlier than non-smokers.
“The results are shocking – smoking is killing one in two older adults, and we found smokers have four times the risk of early death compared to those who have never smoked,” says study lead Katie Thurber, from ANU.