New research published today in the New Zealand Medical Journal has highlighted the link between unhealthy behaviours like drinking and smoking. NZ Newswire’s David Williams covered the story.
An excerpt (read in full here):
Hit booze in smoking battle: experts
The government should consider alcohol law changes as part of the battle against smoking after studies show New Zealand smokers are two-and-a-half times more likely to be binge drinkers, the researchers say.
They say “hazardous” or heavy binge drinking makes it harder for people to quit smoking and more alcohol control, while reducing the damage done by booze, could also help the government’s commitment to make the country smokefree by 2025.
The study was conducted by Otago University’s Nick Wilson, along with experts from Australia and the US, and will be published in the Medical Journal as part of the International Tobacco Control Project.
It surveyed 1376 smokers and found a third of them had a hazardous drinking pattern, much higher than that of non-smokers in the survey – 13.1 percent.
Heavy drinking was more common in younger, male and Maori smokers.