Table 1 Descriptions and definitions of the five cancer risk factor groups and the measures within each. More details are given in Section B of the Additional File 1

Smoking

Current smoking

Those who reported to be current smokers (including daily, weekly or less than weekly), and had smoked at least 100 cigarettes in their life.

Alcohol

Risky alcohol consumption

Those who exceeded the revised 2020 National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) guidelines [50] of up to 10 standard drinks/week and no more than 4 standard drinks in any day. Compliance with the guidelines were assessed using self-reported alcohol consumption during the last three drinking days from the proceeding seven days.

Diet

Inadequate diet

Based on self-reported diet, those who did not meet both the fruit (2 serves/day) and vegetable (5 serves/day) 2013 NHMRC Australian Dietary guidelines [51].

Weight

Obese

Those with a measured BMI greater or equal to 30.

Overweight/ obese

Those with a measured BMI greater or equal to 25.

Risky waist circumference

Those with a measured waist circumference of \(\ge\)94cm (men) and \(\ge\)80cm (women). These cutoffs are only appropriate for adults, so we limited the survey dataset to all persons 18 years and older [4].

Physical activity

Inadequate activity (leisure)

Based on self-reported leisure physical activity, those who did not meet the 2014 Department of Health (DOH) Physical Activity guidelines [52], i.e. that each week adults (those between the ages of 18 and 64) should either do 2 1/2 to 5 hours of moderate-intensity physical activity or 1 1/4 to 2 1/2 hours of vigorous-intensity physical activity or an equivalent combination of both, plus muscle-strengthening activities at least 2 days each week. The DOH guidelines also provide specific recommendations for children (5 to 17 years), older persons (65 years and older) and pregnant women. In this work, the physical activity measures were derived from the ABS created variables that accommodated the guidelines across age groups.

Inadequate activity (all)

Although similar to inadequate activity (leisure), this measures is based on workplace and leisure self-reported physical activity.