Co-developing a smoking cessation intervention with Indigenous mothers in Australia

Globally, 53% of women who smoke daily continue to smoke during pregnancy, which increases the risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as obesity, hypertension, and some respiratory problems in children’s early adulthood.

Smoking prevalence among Indigenous pregnant women is four times the rate in non-Indigenous women, thus pregnancy offers an important window of opportunity to prevent NCDs for Indigenous mothers and their babies.

The award

The GACD project Supporting Indigenous Smokers To Assist Quitting (SISTAQUIT) was funded by a grant from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council from 2017 to 2020 to increase the smoking cessation rates of Indigenous pregnant smokers.

SISTAQUIT is led by Dr Gillian Gould, Associate Professor at the University of Newcastle, Australia, supported by a team which includes both Indigenous and non-Indigenous investigators and research staff.

The study builds on the success of the Indigenous Counselling and Nicotine (ICAN) QUIT in Pregnancy intervention developed in earlier Phase 1 and 2 activities. This involved the co-development and testing of smoking cessation care (SCC) resources with healthcare professionals and mothers from Indigenous communities using a participatory research approach. Applying this approach ensured culturally appropriate and evidence-based SCC which was tailored to Indigenous mothers who smoke and was feasible for healthcare professionals to deliver, which is crucial for future adoption.

Similarly, SISTAQUIT has recently established a Stakeholder and Consumer Aboriginal Advisory Panel, which comprises representatives from the study sites and is actively involved in providing feedback on the implementation of the research.

Key outcomes

One of the key outcomes of the project is its contribution to improved capacity of healthcare professionals to deliver effective SCC to patients. The SISTAQUIT team is exploring opportunities to incorporate the training into undergraduate midwifery courses at universities and to integrate with smoking Quitline centres in Australia.

The study team was awarded further funding from the Australian Government Department of Health for a Phase 4 study called iSISTAQUIT to recruit an additional 20 services in Australia and to develop a social media campaign.

Next steps

More recently, the study team was awarded a further GACD cancer call grant for a full national scale-up (Phase 5). Among other activities, Dr Gould led an Australia-Canada Collaborative to explore the potential to adapt SISTAQUIT to the Canadian First Nations context, as well as foster collaborations in Alaska and New Zealand to help pregnant Indigenous women in other countries stop smoking.

Dr Gould is also collaborating with researchers at the University of Newcastle, Australia to explore smoking cessation in pregnancy not specific to Indigenous peoples.

Full case study: SISTAQUIT – Co-developing a smoking cessation intervention with Indigenous mothers in Australia