Intro | Gender | Diversity | References

Introduction

Key statistics on women’s health behaviours are detailed below. Information regarding how health behaviours vary among diverse groups of is also available. For access to a range of sex disaggregated data sources regarding health behaviours, click on the Indicators in the left-hand menu.

Gender

• 8.8% of Victorian female adolescents have an eating disorder [1].
• Women are more likely than men to use sun protection [2], but girls under 14 years from lower income families are three times less likely to use sun screen, sun glasses or umbrellas than those from higher income families [3].
• 24% of Australian women participate in organised sport or physical activity, compared to 29% of men [4].
• 28.9% of Victorian women report drinking alcohol at levels that place them at risk of short-term alcohol-related harm, and young Victorian women aged 14 to17 years are more likely to have risky drinking patterns compared to their male peers [5].
• A higher prevalence of tobacco use exists in female adolescents aged 14 to 16 than in males of the same age [5].
• Females aged 18 to 24 years and 55 to 64 years are more likely than males to report lifetime non-medical tranquilliser use [5].
• Victorian women are more often social gamblers, preferring to gamble on lottos, gaming machines and scratch tickets [6],[7]. Women social gamblers tend to be either 20 to 39 years of age and working fulltime with average annual incomes [6].

Diversity

Women with disabilities

• Women with disabilities are less likely to have regular two yearly Pap tests than other women [8]. 
• Women with disabilities often face discrimination by healthcare providers and staff [9].
• Women with disabilities often have difficulty accessing healthcare services or are refused service because of poor accessibility [8]. 23% of women with disabilities have difficulty accessing services [10].

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women

• A greater proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women than men report their levels of exercise to be sedentary [11]. 
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women’s tobacco use is reportedly 2.5 times the rate of non-Aboriginal women [12]. 
• Alcohol consumption by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women occurs most in women aged 25 to 34, where higher rates of alcohol consumption for non-Aboriginal women are found in the 35 to 44 age bracket [13].

Same-sex attracted women

• Significantly higher rates of risky alcohol use, marijuana and other illicit drug use have been found in young samesex attracted women aged 22-27 years compared to heterosexual women of the same age [14].

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