Inequalities in health and health risk factors in the Southern African Development Community: evidence from World Health Surveys

Table 3 Descriptive statistics

Variables	Malawi	Mauritius	South Africa	Swaziland	Zambia	Zimbabwe
Socio-demographic
Mean age in years (standard deviation)	35.30 (16.20)	41.18 (15.56)	37.57 (14.47)	38.87 (16.77)	35.40 (14.99)	37.04 (10.07)
Female (%)	56.02	50.43	52.40	52.96	52.74	60.13
Poor SAH (%)	22.36	34.26	27.69	67.10	27.31	44.47
NCDs risk factors
Currently smoking (%)	14.60	22.62	25.37	9.19	14.14	12.82
Heavy episodic alcohol drinking (%)	2.80	4.10	11.44	1.83	7.37	4.59
Inadequate fruit and vegetable intake (%)	39.83	89.27	69.44	76.04	77.70	86.26
Physical inactivity (%)	15.01	26.38	49.95	41.15	23.34	17.80
Environmental determinants of health
Unimproved drinking-water source (%)	20.85	0.00^a	6.07	32.08	39.23	17.53
Unimproved sanitation toilet (%)	20.12	0.09	11.18	20.13	26.92	27.51
Unclean cooking source /Biomass fuel (%)	98.45	1.33	20.92	67.90	87.20	66.15

^aMauritius records 100% of the households with access to improved drinking-water sources

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