Fiona Dobbie Research Fellow, University of Stirling and the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies
Abstract
Smoking is a major preventable cause of premature maternal mortality and subsequent ill-health for babies born to smokers. Existing evidence demonstrates that our embeddedness in social networks affect our choices. This is highly relevant to smoking with its social context which influences smoking behaviour. However, there is lack of evidence looking at how this link could be ‘engineered’ to help smoking cessation attempts in pregnancy.
The objective of this developmental study was to explore how the social networks of pregnant women could be used to aid their smoking cessation attempt. The research design included: a rapid literature review; qualitative engagement with academics, practitioners, pregnant smokers and members of their social network (n=38); and a workshop with representation from practice, policy and commissioning (n=25). A total of 4,740 citations were screened from which 6 papers were retrieved for full review. A pen and paper mapping tool was created and tested to enable pregnant smokers to visualise the structure of their social network and identify strong and weak sources of support. Feedback from practitioners and service users was positive however, further testing is required to assess the effectiveness and utility of this tool within existing practice
