A national study has highlighted the need for anti-smoking campaigns that target Australia's Indigenous community.
The report says Aboriginal smoking rates are still the same as they were in the 1970s, more than double the national average.
Researchers say 50 per cent of Indigenous people smoke, with those most disadvantaged by low education, low income or unemployment most likely to be smokers.
Report co-author Doctor David Thomas, from the Menzies School of Health Research, says social disadvantage appears to be a major factor in smoking among Aboriginal people.
"The poorest and most socially disadvantaged Indigenous people were those most likely to smoke, when compared with other Indigenous people," he said.
"And we found a really similar pattern when we measured social disadvantage, or doing it tough.
"And that's whether we used income, education, employment, housing or even things like having been in jail."
Dr Thomas says the anti-smoking message has failed to reach remote Aboriginal communities.
"What is clear is that those campaigns have not reached Aboriginal people," he said.
"I think we need a combination of both interventions and campaigns that we know work in other populations, and also some special programs for Indigenous people.
"I think even the mainstream programs haven't reached Aboriginal people as well as they could have, so we need the combination."
Source: By Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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