INTRODUCTION: Large disparities exist in smoking rates during pregnancy by racial/ethnic status.
AIMS: The current review examined controlled studies that predominantly included racial/ethnic-minority pregnant smokers for providing smoking cessation treatment.
METHODS: Two authors independently conducted the literature searches in the standard databases using a combination of the keywords with minority, pregnancy, smoking, and cessation identifiers.
RESULTS: The searches identified nine articles that met the inclusion criteria. Only two studies exclusively targeted specific minority groups. Most of them provided some form of brief smoking cessation counseling, with two combining with incentives and one combining with pharmacotherapy. Two studies provided intensive cognitive interventions. Pregnant smokers of American Indian or Alaska Native, Hispanic subgroups, and Asian or Pacific Islander are under-studied.
CONCLUSIONS: Future studies to treat minority pregnant smokers could target under-studied minority groups and may need to directly and intensely target smoking behavior, address cultural and psychosocial issues in an individualized and comprehensive manner, and analyze cost-benefit of an intervention.