Master of Biostatistics Workplace Project Portfolios

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    Workplace Project Portfolio submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Biostatistics
    JAMSEN, KRIS (2007)
    Project 1: The aim of this study was to examine the effect of (a) the smoking status of the household and (b) the amount spent on smoking by the household on inadequate housing. This was a cross-sectional study using data from the first wave of the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey. A total of 7673 households were eligible for analysis. The outcome, inadequate housing, was derived from a questionnaire item asking respondents about the adequacy of their housing with respect to their housing needs in general. A house was defined as a smoking household if at least one member smoked. Amongst smoking households, the total amount spent on smoking per week was calculated. Other factors included in the analyses were education, occupation and age of the household head, household size, household disposable income and housing tenure. There was evidence for an unadjusted association between being a smoking household and having inadequate housing (OR 1.64, 95% CI 1.32 to 2.03, p < 0.001), however after adjusting for indicators of SES and age, evidence for the association became much weaker (OR 1.15, 95% CI 0.90 to 1.47, p = 0.262). For smoking households, there was little evidence for an association between inadequate housing and the amount spent on smoking by the household, either unadjusted or adjusted. It appears that anti-smoking policies will not enhance housing adequacy, which is predominantly affected by indicators of SES.