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• The proportion of current daily smokers among both Indigenous women andmen living in non-remote areas changed little over the period from 1995 to2004-05 (figure 8.2.3).• By comparison, the proportion of current daily smokers among non-Indigenousadults in non-remote areas decreased continually from 1995 (23.4 per cent) to2004-05 (20.8 per cent). This occurred for both women and men.Tobacco related hospitalisations and deathsTobacco smoking is the primary cause of premature and preventable death anddisease in Australia. There is a strong causal relationship between tobaccoconsumption and multiple chronic diseases, including coronary heart disease,stroke, chronic respiratory tract diseases, and pregnancy-related conditions such aslow birthweight. Further, passive smoking has been linked with higher rates ofrespiratory illness, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and asthma in children,and lung cancer and heart disease in adults (DHA 2003, 2004).Data on hospitalisations related to tobacco use reported for this indicator aresourced from the AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database. These data onlycover tobacco related illnesses resulting in admission to a hospital (figure 8.2.5).Further, data are only available for conditions directly attributable to tobacco and donot include most conditions where tobacco may be a contributing factor but wherethe link is not direct and immediate. Lastly, identification of Indigenous patients isincomplete and completeness varies across jurisdictions. The AIHW has advisedthat only data for Queensland, WA, SA and the NT are considered to be acceptablefor analytical purposes. Data for NSW, Victoria, Tasmania and the ACT werewithheld by AIHW due to high rates of under-identification of Indigenous people(see chapter 2 and appendix 4 for more information). The limitations of usinghospital statistics are discussed in appendix 3.SUBSTANCE USE ANDMISUSE8.23