Whilst studies at the country level show a decreasing trend in smoking nationally, local trends may reveal a different picture. area information in the Welsh Health Survey data enabled researchers to have a look at local trends across Wales, their study found that whilst smoking rates were falling overall, declines in smoking were not universal across all local areas. The study found that 21% of people in Neath Port Talbot smoke compared to 20% across Wales.
Likewise in Scotland, a study using the Scottish Health asia rcs data Study found that 25% of adults in Tayside had smoked regularly in the previous 3 years compared to 22% across Scotland.
Health survey data has also been widely used to explain peoples’ health behaviours. For example studies have looked at the impact on the loss of a parent through death or divorce on the likelihood of children trying smoking or drinking. A study using data on 11,000 children from the Millennium Cohort Study found that drinking was more common in preteens than smoking, but both behaviours were more common in those 11 year olds that had experienced the absence of a parent before the age of 7.
Health research also looks at other key aspects of our health and health behaviours. Obesity is an important issue that has been widely researched, and childhood obesity has been shown to be on the decline in a study using the annual Health Survey for England, it remains a key policy concern. Research using the National Diet and Nutrition Survey has shown that children are consuming twice as much sugar as is recommended.