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Exercise to support indigenous pregnant women to stop smoking: acceptability to Māori

journal contribution
posted on 2017-11-01, 00:00 authored by V Roberts, M Glover, L McCowan, N Walker, M Ussher, I Heke, Ralph MaddisonRalph Maddison
Objectives Smoking during pregnancy is harmful for the woman and the unborn child, and the harms raise risks for the child going forward. Indigenous women often have higher rates of smoking prevalence than non-indigenous. Exercise has been proposed as a strategy to help pregnant smokers to quit. Māori (New Zealand Indigenous) women have high rates of physical activity suggesting that an exercise programme to aid quitting could be an attractive initiative. This study explored attitudes towards an exercise programme to aid smoking cessation for Māori pregnant women. Methods Focus groups with Māori pregnant women, and key stakeholder interviews were conducted. Results Overall, participants were supportive of the idea of a physical activity programme for pregnant Māori smokers to aid smoking cessation. The principal, over-arching finding, consistent across all participants, was the critical need for a Kaupapa Māori approach (designed and run by Māori, for Māori people) for successful programme delivery, whereby Māori cultural values are respected and infused throughout all aspects of the programme. A number of practical and environmental barriers to attendance were raised including: cost, the timing of the programme, accessibility, transport, and childcare considerations. Conclusions A feasibility study is needed to design an intervention following the suggestions presented in this paper with effort given to minimising the negative impact of barriers to attendance.

History

Journal

Maternal and child health journal

Volume

21

Pagination

2040-2051

Location

New York, N.Y.

ISSN

1092-7875

eISSN

1573-6628

Indigenous content

This research output may contain the names and images of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people now deceased. We apologise for any distress that may occur.

Language

eng

Publication classification

C Journal article, C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2017, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

Issue

11

Publisher

Springer Science & Business Media