Alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking in Busselton, 1966-1978

In Busselton, mass health examination (MHE) questionnaires about alcohol consumption indicate that more people are drinking wine and fewer people are drinking beer. The evidence suggests an increase in the number of women consuming alcohol. The proportion of drinkers was higher among patients attending doctors with interests in wineries and/or vineyards compared with those patients attending doctors without such interests. More patients of doctors who smoked were smokers compared with those patient of doctors who were non-smokers. Smoking in Busselton appears to be declining at the rate of 0.5% to 1% of the population per annum; this decline is more marked in people who had attended one or more MHEs than in newcomers to MHEs. These trends have encouraged a more active approach to the prevention of smoking in school children.