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20 astonishing SA stats

Here's your chance to see how you measure up to other South Africans when it comes to health matters.

Do you floss? Drive drunk? Forget flu vaccinations? Wear a seatbelt? Drink alcohol? Smoke? Do drugs? Exercise regularly, or live on takeaways?

Where our stats come from
Business first: where did our stats come from? Just over 15 000 people filled in Health24’s Health of the Nation Survey, and the weighted results are representative of 2,5 million South Africans over the age of 20, educated to at least matric level, with a monthly income of over R4 500. If that sounds like you, then this survey is about you.

Here are a few highlighted stats if you don't have the time to check out the full survey results:

  • 88% of respondents have not spent a night in hospital in the last five years
  • 30% describe themselves as supersloths
  • 83% believe in going to conventional GPs as a first port of call
  • 49% eat breakfast every day
  • 47% hate second hand smoke
  • 79% hate it when others take illegal drugs
  • 76% of our mothers are still alive
  • 88% don't get annual flu vaccinations
  • Almost 50% of us are still tired when we wake up
  • Only 23% drink any alcohol at all
  • 12% suffer from a mood disorder or mental illness
  • Respondents stress more about money than about anything else
  • Only 29% never use cellphones while driving
  • 72% of respondents always wear a seatbelt
  • 40% got food poisoning from a restaurant or takeaway place in the last year
  • Only 21% of us floss daily
  • Fewer than 50% of women go for annual Pap smears
  • 91% are not organ donors
  • 70% are dissatisfied with their weight
  • 75% describe themselves as happy or content

(Susan Erasmus, Health24.com, October 2008)

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