Leading the way in the Australian Health space, Pacific Magazines titles Women’s Health and Prevention presented the results of Australia’s Biggest Health Check Survey in partnership with Channel 7’s Sunrise and Priceline this week.

Covering a range of health-related topics such as fitness, weight, nutrition, stress and heart-health, the results of the nationwide study of over 25,000 men and women provide an up to the minute insight into the health and wellbeing issues affecting Australians today.

Survey results delivered an overwhelming interest in health among all respondents, although women showed a higher interest in their health than men. The majority of respondents also said that they talk more about health issues in general than they did two years ago.

“It’s fantastic to see that Australians have such a high value and interest in their health. From the outset, this shows us that this survey is timely and will be well received Australia-wide,” said Felicity Harley, Editor, Women’s Health.

Some key results from the survey are as follows:

Where do our priorities lie?
- Women across age groups aspire to lose weight (47%), exercise more (47%) and get more sleep (41%)

- The Internet is fast becoming a source of health advice for respondents, raking equal to the GP at 33%. However, only 11% of respondents trusted the Internet over other sources of health advice.

Health worries
- Respondents aged 25-39 rate anxiety and stress as their greatest medical concerns, whist women aged over 40 worry most about arthritis.
- Women under 40 rate an active brain as the most important aspect of health, whilst women over 40 saw relationships with friends and family and heart health as key priorities

- Surprisingly, across all respondents, the top everyday things of concern were artificial food additives and plastics containing BPA.

Ripping our hair out?
- Stress levels are higher amongst women aged 25-39, and they also have expectations that stress levels will rise. The main stressors cited by survey respondents were financial concerns, lack of sleep and time.
- Only 22% of survey respondents rated themselves as ‘fit’ (that is, at high fitness levels).
- Across all age groups, exercise was rated as the preferred stress release method
- Women have on average 3.74 hours of leisure time per week – that’s around half an hour per day.

- If women had more time in the week, 26% would spend it relaxing, 11% would spend it with their partner and 10% would spend it exercising

The weighty issues
- More than a third of women (36%) say they often feel down about their weight, with 17% happy with their weight with no need to diet.

- Women are making nutritional choices to improve their health, using healthy oils, drinking more water and eating more fruit and vegetables

The results of Australia’s Biggest Health Check will be shared with Australians through Pacific Magazines titles in Women’s Health and Prevention, as well as Priceline this month.

Pick up the November issue of Women's Health - on sale October 18th