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Health Targets

Quarterly Reports
Reducing the Harm Caused by Tobacco Target


Summaries from the Target Champion on the national progress towards this target is provided below:

Full year - 2007/08

07/08 Target Achievement – Targets met or exceeded


The following targets have been met or exceeded.

  • Increase Year 10 students who have never smoked by 2% over the baseline of 53.7%. The actual result was 57% of all Year 10 students are ‘never smokers’, an increase of more than 2000 young people or a total of 35,474 young people who have never smoked even a single cigarette.
  • 75% of homes with one or more smokers and one or more children are now smokefree indoors.
The number of ‘never smokers’, those who have never smoked a single puff, increased by 3.4% on last year’s results to 57.2% of students. There was an increase in never smoking between 2006 and 2007 for both boys and girls, including:

  • Māori boys (from 37.4% to 39.1%) and Māori girls (from 23.5% to 26.7%)
  • Pacific boys (from 48.5% to 52.2%) and Pacific girls (from 41.8 to 46.1%).
Results from the Ministry of Health’s 2006/07 New Zealand Health Survey – the largest survey of New Zealanders’ health ever completed – placed New Zealand’s smoking prevalence at a record low of 19.9% for current smokers (aged 15 years and over).

There have also been significant decreases among Māori in daily smoking rates. The rate for Māori men dropped from 43% to 35% and for Māori women it dropped from 51% in 2002/03 to 40% in 2006/07.


Proportion of 'never smoked' year 10 students


Graph of the proportion of 'never smokers' for 2003-2007.
Source: National Year 10 ASH Snapshot Survey, 199-2007: Trends in tobacco use by students aged 14-15 years.

Quarter Three 2007/08
All DHBs have submitted draft tobacco control plans, and these are now being finalised.

The Health Sponsorship Council's monitoring survey shows that the smoke-free homes target has been achieved, with just over 75% of homes that have both children and smokers now being smoke-free (2007/08 target is 75%).

The Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) Year 10 survey shows that 57.2% of Year 10 students are now 'never smokers', so this target, which was 56%, has also been achieved.

The targets for 2008/09 have been revised upwards in response to the achievements during 2007/08, and both targets now include a specific inequalities dimension.

Quarter Two 2007/08
By the end of Quarter Two, all DHBs had been visited and were aware of the national direction for tobacco control, in particular for cessation, and the expectations regarding DHB tobacco control plans.

A DHB tobacco control workshop held on 31 October was attended by 20 DHBs, and many useful ideas shared.

The first draft of DHB tobacco control plans were due at the Ministry by the end of January 2008. Data for monitoring national progress against the targets during 2007 will be available in April to May 2008.

Quarter One 2007/08
All DHBs support the direction and priorities of this target, in particular, the focus on smoking cessation: 'More smokers making more quit attempts and using nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) more often'. The revision of the policy on access to subsidised NRT is well advanced, with the aim being to increase the accessibility to and availability of NRT.

DHBs are aware of the requirement to develop a tobacco control plan by June 2008. Tobacco control plans are either signed-off or progressing well in the four high needs DHBs: Northland, Lakes, Tairawhiti, and Whanganui. The wider tobacco control sector is aware of the key directions, and national agencies are kept up to date through the National Smokefree Working Group.
Page last updated: 17 October 2008


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