Published: 2 February 2013
Authors: Glover, M.
Many Māori and Pacific Island people smoke, and the prevalence isn’t significantly declining. Māori and Pacific Island people are more likely to quit smoking for the sake of their children, rather than their own health. Hearing from children about how they are affected by smoking could usefully inform tobacco control campaigns and cessation programs. We aim to conduct focus groups with 50 children, who suffer from respiratory disease, to ask them what they think about people smoking, their smoking-related fears and concerns, and their ideas about and experience of parents stopping smoking. The study will provide new knowledge that can help healthcare professionals tailor motivational smoking cessation messages for Māori and Pacific Island parents of children with respiratory disease. This research will contribute to the Government’s support of the Māori Affairs Committee recommendation for New Zealand to be smokefree by 2525 [1]. Reducing parental smoking would contribute to the Asthma Foundation’s aim of improving respiratory health.
