Open AccessRace‐related stress and smoking among pregnant African‐American women
Author(s) -
FERNANDER ANITA,
MOORMAN GEORGE,
AZUORU MIRIAM
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
acta obstetricia et gynecologica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.401
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1600-0412
pISSN - 0001-6349
DOI - 10.3109/00016340903508676
Subject(s) - medicine , psychosocial , african american , race (biology) , population , coping (psychology) , demography , snowball sampling , gerontology , clinical psychology , psychiatry , environmental health , ethnology , botany , pathology , sociology , biology , history
Objectives . To examine the association between the psychosocial construct of race‐related stress and smoking among pregnant African‐American women. Design . Inferential statistical analyses were performed. Setting . Participants were recruited primarily at a medical clinic as well as through word‐of‐mouth consistent with the snowball sampling technique. Population . Seventy pregnant self‐identified African‐American women (32 smokers and 38 non‐smokers) 18 years or older participated in the study. Methods . Participants completed self‐report measures of the Index of Race‐Related Stress and an investigator‐developed demographic and smoking questionnaire. Main outcome measures . Smoking status of each participant was established through self‐report. Results . Significant associations were found between the smoking status of pregnant African‐American women and the frequency and perceptions of overall race‐related stress ( p < 0.03 and 0.02, respectively), the frequency and perceptions of both individual and cultural race‐related stress ( p < 0.01, 0.03, 0.05, and 0.03, respectively). No associations were found between institutional race‐related stress and smoking status. Conclusions . The findings suggest that integrating race‐related stress relieving and coping activities into smoking cessation intervention programs for pregnant African‐American women may reduce smoking and subsequent smoking‐related reproductive health disparities in the population.