Factors Contributing to Geographical Variation in Maternal Smoking Rates Among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander...

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Indigenous Health
• Geographic Epidemiology

Background:

• Smoking during pregnancy presents significant health risks to mothers and infants.
• Addressing smoking in pregnant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women is a key Australian national health priority.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate geographical variations in the rates of not smoking during pregnancy among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in Australia.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from the National Perinatal Data Collection (2014-2017) for women aged 18+ recorded as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander.
• Employed conditional autoregressive spatial regression modeling to analyze sociodemographic characteristics across 340 geographic areas (SA3).
• Examined factors associated with not smoking in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Main Results:

• Over half (56%) of the 49,341 women in the study reported not smoking in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy.
• Prevalence of not smoking ranged widely from 39% to 86% across different geographic areas.
• Higher rates of not smoking were observed in areas with older median age, lower socioeconomic disadvantage, and higher employment participation.

Conclusions:

• Area-level socioeconomic disadvantage, particularly employment levels, was strongly associated with not smoking during early pregnancy among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.
• Public health strategies should target high-smoking areas and focus on improving employment and addressing socioeconomic disparities to reduce maternal smoking rates.