Nearly half of smokers have kicked the habit since 1999, a new health survey shows.

Thirteen percent of people smoke, down from 22 percent eight years ago — a decrease of about 40 percent — according to the 2006 Health Survey of Adults and Children in Bermuda, released yesterday.

Men (ten percent) are more likely to smoke than women (six percent), and whites (11 percent) more than blacks (six percent).

The statistics, which come nearly a year after smoking was banned in public places, were one of a string of findings in the report by the Health Promotion Office and the Department of Statistics.

It also reveals numbers of asthma sufferers have plummeted, with nine percent in 2006 compared with 17 percent in 1999.

However, the amount of people with high blood pressure has shot up from seven percent in 1999 to 25 percent last year. The most at-risk age group is the over 65s, of whom 46 percent have high blood pressure.

Diabetes has also increased, from nine percent in 1999 to 13 percent. Nearly a quarter (23 percent) of people over 65 suffer the condition, with blacks (16 percent) twice as susceptible as whites (eight percent).

Three in ten (30 percent) people take part in vigorous exercise at least three times a week, with 18 percent saying they do less than ten minutes moderate exercise per day.

A quarter (24 percent) report that they binge drink — five or more drinks in one session — hardly changed from 1999 when the figure was 23 percent.

The vast majority of people get their health regularly checked out, with 89 percent having their blood pressure assessed in the previous year and 82 percent their cholesterol; 96 percent of women having had a pap test and 92 percent a mammogram. Just under half (49 percent) of adults have been tested for HIV in their lifetime.

Nearly three quarters (72 percent) of adults watch television for more than two hours a day.

Among children, the four most common medical problems are asthma (22 percent affected), eczema (17 percent), ear infections (16 percent) and respiratory allergies (nine percent).

One in five people (20 percent) aged 18 to 34 sometimes fails to wear a seat belt while driving or the front seat passenger in a car.