The State of Public Health Report 2018

This fourth State of Public Health Report describes the health of Tasmanians and the factors that influence their health and wellbeing.

Statistical descriptions of health in this report are complemented by stories that show community action, and provide context and meaning.

These stories describe innovation and collaboration between communities, government departments, local government, business, non-government organisations and research bodies.

Evaluating these activities provides evidence of what contributes to achieving our population health goals.

There are some promising signs for Tasmania’s health:

• life expectancy at birth has reached 83 years for females and 79 years for males
• more than 80 per cent of Tasmanians rate their health as good to excellent
• teenage pregnancy, smoking (notably among teenagers and pregnant women) and some harmful patterns of alcohol consumption have declined
• nearly 95 per cent of Tasmanian children are fully immunised by five years old.

But by many measures, Tasmania still ranks poorly compared with other Australian states and territories, and health inequities continue to affect the health of Tasmanians living in settings of social disadvantage.

The report advocates improving population health through a range of principled approaches, further activity under the Healthy Tasmania Five Year Strategic Plan, acknowledgement of complexity and long-term commitment to change, and a review of the Public Health Act 1997.

The report is evidence that ongoing generation of data and evidence to guide and evaluate actions to improve health and wellbeing is critical.