Drugs or Obesity? Different Age Groups Disagree About Biggest Health Threats

America has huge health concerns. That's nothing new. From bigger proportions of fast food, to drug abuse, to binge drinking, to eating disorders, we know we are in bad shape. Not all of us agree, however, on what the greatest threat to public health in the state of North Carolina is.

You may be interested in findings from the Brogan Survey that reveal which of four choices--obesity, smoking, alcohol or drugs-- people find are the greatest threat to health. Overall, 38% felt drug abuse is the greatest threat, followed by 30.8% who felt obesity is more of a concern. What may be the most interesting though, is how people in various age groups answered differently.

People ages 18-24 were the most likely to say obesity is the greatest threat to health-- 40.4% of them-- and least likely to say drugs are the biggest problem, 29.8%. People 65 and older answered in just the opposite way, being least likely of any other group (23.9%) to answer obesity and most likely to answer drugs (46.9%) when asked what the greatest health concern is.

Does that seem odd to anyone else? Aren't fingers typically pointed at teenagers and young adults for drug abuse? Aren't older people more likely to be less active and gain weight with age?

Our findings can suggest a variety of things. Do you think the older population overestimates drug abuse in the state or country? Is this because of the media's portrayal of young people? Are younger people more attuned to the obesity problem? Do they learn about it in school or base the level of health threat on people they know, indicating more overweight friends than drug addicts?

Strong Support for Smoking Ban Varies By Age and Gender

When asked "would you support or oppose a ban on smoking in North Carolina restaurants and bars?" responses varied depending on age of the person answering. According to the Brogan Survey results, only 27.7% of 18-24 year olds would "strongly support" such a ban. All other age groups had between 43% and 50% of their respondents selecting "strongly support" as their answer to that same question.

Another interesting finding from the survey is that many more women strongly support the ban than do men. 53.3% of women said they would "strongly support" the ban on smoking in North Carolina restaurants and bars while just 38.3% of men answered the same way.

For a full crosstab of the results, click on the link.

Is there a reason why young adults and women seem to have stronger feelings about supporting the ban? What do you think?

NC: African Americans Much More Likely to Support Ban on Tobacco

One interesting piece of data from the question about banning smoking in North Carolina entirely, is that African Americans were significantly more likely to support such a ban.

To be specific, the exact question asked was: "Would you support or oppose a North Carolina law that would ban tobacco use entirely?" And then we asked, "And would that be strongly support/oppose, or somewhat support/oppose."

Here's how the answers differed by race:

Caucasian:

• Strongly support 17.9%
• Somewhat support 8.4%
• Somewhat oppose 15.8%
• Strongly oppose 54.9%

African American:

• Strongly support 28.9%
• Somewhat support 6.6%
• Somewhat oppose 19.7%
• Strongly oppose 42.8%

So 35.5% of North Carolina African-Americans would support a complete ban on tobacco in the state, versus 26.3% of Caucasians. And the opposition is softer among African-Americans as well.

There's a lot of interesting data in this survey. Watch the blog for more data, or better yet, use the tool to the right to subscribe so you can see the latest at a glance...

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Ban Smoking? In North Carolina??

That's the surprising finding from our latest survey data released today. Turns out that 28.3% of North Carolinians would support "a North Carolina law that would ban tobacco use entirely". 21% strongly support it, another 7.3% somewhat support it.

On the flip side, 69.1% would oppose such a law, 52.2% strongly, 16.9% somewhat. (2.5% don't know). But to see more than a quarter of people in the heart of the tobacco belt suggesting they'd be ok with making tobacco use illegal was surpising. Our personal guess before the survey (and again, it was just a wild guess) was about 12% would support a ban. But with all the legislation coming down on tobacco use, we'd not seen anyone who'd asked the question of who would ban it. So we asked.

The majority of people in the state did support a ban on smoking at bars and restaurants (61%) and a ban on smoking in all indoor public places (64%).

But before we say the survey shows strong sentiment for action on tobacco, other questions suggest people don't think smoking is our greatest concern. In fact, when asked to pick the greatest public health threat in the state from four choices (obesity, smoking, alcohol abuse or drug abuse--and yes, the order they were asked in rotated...), the largest percentage chose drug abuse as you can see in the press release.

That suggests to us that second hand smoke may still be seen as more of an annoyance than a significant health threat. There is increasing evidence that second hand smoke can be a health problem, but that message doesn't seem to have permeated quite yet. In fact, we did a campaign about that (you can read more about the research on it here).

And, full disclosure, we did a campaign for the state of NC trying to educate people about the dangers of short term exposure to second hand smoke. You can watch the TV spot from that campaign below, if you're interested.



What do you think:

• Great idea to outlaw tobacco because of the health risk?
• Or would that be government intrusion into private affairs?
• Is it an idea that will happen in North Carolina someday, or will it never happen

Thoughts? Leave your comment below.