Short CommunicationPsychosocial characteristics and smoking behaviour in young Western Australian pregnant women at their first hospital appointment for pregnancy care
Section snippets
Background
There has been a steady decline in the number of Western Australian (WA) women identified as tobacco smokers during pregnancy from 23% in 1999 to 12% in 2012.1 However, this decline is not evenly distributed among WA mothers. A high rate remains in pregnant women ≤19 years of age (32%) and women 20–24 years of age (22%).1 In 2012, Australian Indigenous women had the highest rates of smoking in pregnancy, their age standardised rate being 46% compared to 14% for their non-Indigenous counterparts.
Methods
The purpose of this paper was to describe the psychosocial characteristics and smoking behaviour in a sample of young, pregnant WA women who reported smoking tobacco at their first antenatal visit, following recruitment into a randomised controlled trial. This study was designed to assess the feasibility of a multiple component intervention (motivational interviewing, a non-smoking buddy and Carbon Monoxide monitoring), to assist young pregnant women to stop or reduce their smoking and assess
Results
Cohort description and comparison between light and heavy smokers are presented in Table 1. Analysis of the women's psychosocial outcomes found 89% of the 80 smoking women recruited were unemployed or not in education, 20% confirmed a history of sexual abuse, 26% reported suicide ideation and 43% conveyed using illicit drugs. Cigarette initiation occurred at a mean age of 13 years, with the mean age women ‘started smoking regularly’ being two years later, 77% had a partner who smoked and 76%
Discussion
Our study shows that young women who continue to smoke in pregnancy are a vulnerable cohort. The majority (89%) of this cohort were unemployed or not in education. One fifth reported a history of sexual abuse, around one quarter experienced suicidal ideation and just over two fifths used illicit drugs. Heavy smokers were more likely than lighter smokers to be non-Indigenous, smoke at regular intervals throughout the day, prompted to smoke by a partner who smoked or they when were bored.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the women who participated in the study.
Ethical approval
Ethics approval for this study was gained at two hospital sites in Western Australia. The Women and Newborn Health Human Ethics Committee (2022/EW) and the South Metropolitan Health Services Ethics Committee (W/13/61).
Funding
We would like to thank King Edward Memorial Hospital and Heathway for funding the study.
Competing interests
None declared.
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