We’ve just published a paper in Drug and Alcohol Review based on formative survey research we conducted for the Smoke Free Still Fierce smoking cessation campaign (ACON developed with funding from Cancer Institute NSW). We produced a community report on the survey but this is a more sophisticated analysis that aimed to understand the differences between LBQ women who smoke and those who had recently quit.
KEY FINDING: LBQ women who had recently quit were less likely to have close friends who smoked and more likely to have a non‐smoking (or no) partner.
TAKE HOME MESSAGE: To address the persistently high rates of smoking among LBQ women we need to understand and address the significance of partners and friends in supporting smoking AND cessation efforts.
Kolstee, J. , Deacon, R. M., Haidar, S. , Gray, J. and Mooney‐Somers, J. (2018), Changes in social networks are associated with lesbian, bisexual and queer women quitting smoking: An analysis of Australian survey data. Drug Alcohol Rev. https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.12873
FREE ACCESS TO READ THE ARTICLE HERE (if you need to download and can’t get past paywalls ask me for help)
If you want to know more about our work on lesbian, bisexual and queer women’s smoking, check out our analysis showing that over a decade smoking rates in Australia had only slightly decreased in LBQ women engaged with LGBT communities and not reduced at all among younger women. We also showed that LBQ women who smoked had fewer economic, social and psychological resources and reported higher levels of alcohol and illicit drug use. Or look at our systematic review of the outcomes and characteristics of interventions designed to reduce LGBTI smoking (take home: they appear to be effective). We’ve more work coming…
Photo by Taylorhatmaker, used with permission
Julie Mooney-Somers 