Health and wellbeing

The Children and Young People in Tasmania (CAYPIT) resource is designed to facilitate statistics, qualitative research and other information to a cross section of audiences, including young people, policy makers, program planners and service providers at a state, regional and local level.

At a Glance – Health and wellbeing

The World Health Organization definition of health is ‘not only the absence of infirmity and disease but also a state of physical, mental and social well-being’.

In 2005, the proportion of people aged 15 years and over in Tasmania whose self-assessed health status was either very good or excellent was 56.5 per cent, up from 48.6 per cent in 2004. [1]

In 2005, the Australian Childhood Immunisation Register recorded that 93.8 per cent of 12-15 month old babies and 93.6 per cent of 24-27 month old children were immunised in 2006. [2]

In 2005, the infant mortality rate in Tasmania was 3.5 babies per 1,000. [3]

In Tasmania, the rate of child abuse reduced from 5.8 per 1,000 in 2005 to 5.2 per 1,000 in 2006. At the same time, the national rate of child abuse in Australia in 2006 was 7.2 per 1,000. [4]

In 2006, 8.8 per cent of Tasmanians aged 18-24 years reported they considered alcohol and/or drug use as a personal stressor, 21.5 per cent reported that their unemployment caused them stress and 10.4 per cent had been caused stress due to mental illness. [5] For the same year, 35.5 per cent of 18-24 year olds reported having no personal stressors.

Tasmania had the lowest rate of 24.1 HIV diagnoses per 100,000 people. [6]

At a Glance - Recreation and Leisure

The following information is provided by the ABS 1307.6 - Tasmanian State and Regional Indicators, Children’s participation in cultural and leisure activities, Mar 2008.

In 2006, almost one third (32.2 per cent) of Tasmanian children aged 5-14 years participated in cultural activities. Females were more likely to participate in cultural activities (46.9 per cent) compared to males (18.4 per cent). This included playing a musical instrument (females 21.6 per cent compared to males 14.8 per cent), dancing (females 24.1 per cent compared to males 1.2 per cent) and singing (females 12.2 per cent compared to males 3.0 per cent). Females were also more likely to visit a public library or attend a performing arts event.

Of children and young people participating in sport, males accounted for 60.2 per cent of participants and females 58.4 per cent. Soccer (outdoor) was the highest participation sport amongst Tasmanian children aged 5-14 years (17.5 per cent), attracting 23.7 per cent males and 10.9 per cent females This was followed by swimming (14.6 per cent) which attracted 11.3 per cent males and 18.4 per cent females, and Australian Rules Football (10.0 per cent) which attracted 18.4 per cent males and 0.9 per cent females.

Children and young peoples’ leisure pursuits were dominated by watching TV, videos or DVDs (95.4 per cent) reading for pleasure (78.8 per cent) and bike riding (72.5 per cent).Most children used a computer (94.1 per cent), with 61.2 per cent having accessed the Internet.

Participation in organised sport increased with age, from 40.9 per cent of children aged 5-8 years to 72.7 per cent of children aged 12-14 years. Use of the Internet also increased with age, from 36.1 per cent of children aged 5-8 years to 83.9 per cent of children aged 12-14 years, as did homework or other study, which increased from 48.4 per cent of children aged 5-8 years to 84.9 per cent of children aged 12-14 years.

ABS Statistics - 4102.0 - Tasmania - Health and wellbeing - Australian Social Trends - ABS, 2007
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