Understanding smoking by pregnant Aboriginal women

This thesis by publication is composed of an introduction, seven papers and a final chapter with conclusions. All papers relate to developing an understanding of the factors contributing to the high prevalence of smoking among pregnant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, or to approaches to supporting women to quit smoking. At the time of submission of this thesis, six of the seven papers have been published or accepted for publication in peer-reviewed journals, and the other paper is under review. The final chapter, Conclusions, lessons learnt and next steps, discusses the findings from these papers under three conceptual areas: the social and structural drivers of smoking; the role of individual characteristics; and support from antenatal providers. For each area it identifies the implications of reducing maternal smoking and suggests areas where future research is required. It argues for more intervention research in this field and discusses the challenges inherent in achieving this.