Talking About the Smokes is a large national research project to better understand the pathways to smoking and quitting for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and to evaluate what works in assisting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to quit smoking. 

The project is a collaboration between research institutions and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHSs) and their state and national representative bodies. It is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health.

We conducted surveys in communities served by 34 ACCHSs and in the Torres Strait. We completed baseline surveys of 2522 community members and 645 staff members from April 2012 to October 2013. We then conducted follow-up surveys of half of the eligible smokers and ex-smokers in July 2013 to September 2014.

We released our baseline results on 1 June 2015 in a special supplement of the Medical Journal of Australia, available at https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2015/202/10/supplement.

Our final policy and practice brief summarising the project’s findings is available here (May 2020). Previous policy and practice briefs are available here (June 2015), here (January 2017), here (December 2017), here (August 2018) and here (March 2019). An additional policy and practice brief summarising results from remote areas is available here (April 2021). 

Our surveys are available at https://itcproject.org/countries/australia-indigenous/.

For further information, please contact Professor David Thomas.