The Be Our Ally Beat Smoking (BOABS) study, a randomised controlled trial of an intensive smoking cessation intervention in a remote aboriginal Australian health care setting

Background: Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (Indigenous Australians) smoke at much higher rates than non-Indigenous people and smoking is an important contributor to increased disease, hospital admissions and deaths in Indigenous Australian populations. Smoking cessation pro...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Marley, J., Atkinson, D., Kitaura, T., Nelson, C., Gray, Dennis, Metcalf, S., Maguire, G.
Format: Journal Article
Published: BioMed Central Ltd 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/40287
_version_ 1848755828165705728
author Marley, J.
Atkinson, D.
Kitaura, T.
Nelson, C.
Gray, Dennis
Metcalf, S.
Maguire, G.
author_facet Marley, J.
Atkinson, D.
Kitaura, T.
Nelson, C.
Gray, Dennis
Metcalf, S.
Maguire, G.
author_sort Marley, J.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Background: Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (Indigenous Australians) smoke at much higher rates than non-Indigenous people and smoking is an important contributor to increased disease, hospital admissions and deaths in Indigenous Australian populations. Smoking cessation programs in Australia have not had the same impact on Indigenous smokers as on non-Indigenous smokers. This paper describes the outcome of a study that aimed to test the efficacy of a locally-tailored, intensive, multidimensional smoking cessation program. Methods: A randomised controlled trial of Aboriginal researcher delivered tailored smoking cessation counselling during face-to-face visits, aiming for weekly for the first four weeks, monthly to six months and two monthly to12 months. The control (“usual care”) group received routine care relating to smoking cessation at their local primary health care service. Data collection occurred at enrolment, six and 12 months. The primary outcome was self-reported smoking cessation with urinary cotinine confirmation at final follow-up (median 13 (interquartile range 12–15) months after enrolment).Results: Participants in the intervention (n = 55) and usual care (n = 108) groups were similar in baseline characteristics, except the intervention group was slightly older. At final follow-up the smoking cessation rate for participants assigned to the intervention group (n = 6; 11%), while not statistically significant, was double that of usual care (n = 5; 5%; p = 0.131). A meta-analysis of these findings and a similarly underpowered but comparable study of pregnant Indigenous Australian women showed that Indigenous Australian participants assigned to the intervention groups were 2.4 times (95% CI, 1.01-5.5) as likely to quit as participants assigned to usual care. Conclusions: Culturally appropriate, multi-dimensional Indigenous quit smoking programs can be successfully implemented in remote primary health care. Intensive one-on-one interventions with substantial involvement from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers are likely to be effective in these settings. Trial registration: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12608000604303).
first_indexed 2025-11-14T09:02:30Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-40287
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T09:02:30Z
publishDate 2014
publisher BioMed Central Ltd
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-402872017-09-13T14:00:16Z The Be Our Ally Beat Smoking (BOABS) study, a randomised controlled trial of an intensive smoking cessation intervention in a remote aboriginal Australian health care setting Marley, J. Atkinson, D. Kitaura, T. Nelson, C. Gray, Dennis Metcalf, S. Maguire, G. Be Our Ally Beat Smoking (BOABS) Study Torres Strait Islander Smoking cessation Randomised controlled trial Indigenous Aboriginal Background: Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (Indigenous Australians) smoke at much higher rates than non-Indigenous people and smoking is an important contributor to increased disease, hospital admissions and deaths in Indigenous Australian populations. Smoking cessation programs in Australia have not had the same impact on Indigenous smokers as on non-Indigenous smokers. This paper describes the outcome of a study that aimed to test the efficacy of a locally-tailored, intensive, multidimensional smoking cessation program. Methods: A randomised controlled trial of Aboriginal researcher delivered tailored smoking cessation counselling during face-to-face visits, aiming for weekly for the first four weeks, monthly to six months and two monthly to12 months. The control (“usual care”) group received routine care relating to smoking cessation at their local primary health care service. Data collection occurred at enrolment, six and 12 months. The primary outcome was self-reported smoking cessation with urinary cotinine confirmation at final follow-up (median 13 (interquartile range 12–15) months after enrolment).Results: Participants in the intervention (n = 55) and usual care (n = 108) groups were similar in baseline characteristics, except the intervention group was slightly older. At final follow-up the smoking cessation rate for participants assigned to the intervention group (n = 6; 11%), while not statistically significant, was double that of usual care (n = 5; 5%; p = 0.131). A meta-analysis of these findings and a similarly underpowered but comparable study of pregnant Indigenous Australian women showed that Indigenous Australian participants assigned to the intervention groups were 2.4 times (95% CI, 1.01-5.5) as likely to quit as participants assigned to usual care. Conclusions: Culturally appropriate, multi-dimensional Indigenous quit smoking programs can be successfully implemented in remote primary health care. Intensive one-on-one interventions with substantial involvement from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers are likely to be effective in these settings. Trial registration: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12608000604303). 2014 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/40287 10.1186/1471-2458-14-32 BioMed Central Ltd fulltext
spellingShingle Be Our Ally Beat Smoking (BOABS) Study
Torres Strait Islander
Smoking cessation
Randomised controlled trial
Indigenous
Aboriginal
Marley, J.
Atkinson, D.
Kitaura, T.
Nelson, C.
Gray, Dennis
Metcalf, S.
Maguire, G.
The Be Our Ally Beat Smoking (BOABS) study, a randomised controlled trial of an intensive smoking cessation intervention in a remote aboriginal Australian health care setting
title The Be Our Ally Beat Smoking (BOABS) study, a randomised controlled trial of an intensive smoking cessation intervention in a remote aboriginal Australian health care setting
title_full The Be Our Ally Beat Smoking (BOABS) study, a randomised controlled trial of an intensive smoking cessation intervention in a remote aboriginal Australian health care setting
title_fullStr The Be Our Ally Beat Smoking (BOABS) study, a randomised controlled trial of an intensive smoking cessation intervention in a remote aboriginal Australian health care setting
title_full_unstemmed The Be Our Ally Beat Smoking (BOABS) study, a randomised controlled trial of an intensive smoking cessation intervention in a remote aboriginal Australian health care setting
title_short The Be Our Ally Beat Smoking (BOABS) study, a randomised controlled trial of an intensive smoking cessation intervention in a remote aboriginal Australian health care setting
title_sort be our ally beat smoking (boabs) study, a randomised controlled trial of an intensive smoking cessation intervention in a remote aboriginal australian health care setting
topic Be Our Ally Beat Smoking (BOABS) Study
Torres Strait Islander
Smoking cessation
Randomised controlled trial
Indigenous
Aboriginal
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/40287