Survey of Aboriginal smokers’ and ex-smokers’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviours in Central Australia 2016–2017

Objective: To examine tobacco knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of community members in Central Australia and to compare these by participant’s location (town or remote community). Design: Community-based survey of 165 smokers and recent ex-smokers. Outcome measures: Knowledge was assessed using responses to questions on the health risk of smoking (e.g. lung cancer) and knowledge of quit support services. Attitudes towards smoking were assessed using statements that asked participant whether they agreed or disagreed. Smoking behaviours were assessed by asking participants about quit attempts, cigarettes per day and time to first cigarette (used to calculate the heaviness of smoking index). Results: There were high levels of knowledge about most common diseases associated with smoking, including cancer (93%) and heart disease (89%). There was less knowledge about quit support services that are available through telephone (69%), online (27%) and apps (32%). Responses to attitude statements were suggestive of the normalised practices towards smoking in town and remote participants, with remote participants more likely to disagree that ‘ok to smoke close to a building’ and to disagree ‘if I had my time over again I would not have started’. Over 75% of the participants had attempted to quit smoking and 55% had a sustained quit attempt (>1 month). Conclusion: There are greater challenges to reduce smoking in remote areas due to the social and communal practices of smoking and in providing service needs that encourage quit attempts. This supports the need for continued and increased investment for targeted tobacco control by remote health services.