Smoking among aboriginal health workers: findings of a 1995 survey in western New South Wales.

As part of the Western NSW Aboriginal Smoking Project (1995) a self-administered questionnaire surveyed regional Aboriginal health workers (AHWs) about their tobacco use and their awareness of smoking related health issues. The aim was to provide baseline information to guide the development of project interventions. The majority of respondents smoked. Among the smokers most said that they would like to quit smoking, and all said that they had tried to quit. All the smokers were interested in assistance to help them quit, and were interested in assistance to help them help others in their communities to quit. AHWs are a professional group whose smoking rates might typify that of their communities, and in the future they might provide indications of smoking trends in their communities.