Smoking cessation among persons with behavioral health issues?

Persons with behavioral health issues including drug, alcohol and/or mental health problems have extremely high rates of tobacco use. Despite the serious health effects of tobacco use, smoking cessation is often not a priority in behavioral health treatment. This presentation examines tobacco use in a population with behavioral health problems in a large metropolitan area, with a focus on their attempts to quit smoking and methods used in both successful and unsuccessful quit attempts. The data are from the 2010 PHMC Household Health Survey, a biannual telephone survey of 10,000 households in Philadelphia and four surrounding counties. The survey includes questions about alcohol or other drug problems and diagnosed mental health conditions. Nine percent of survey respondents are in recovery from drug or alcohol problems and nearly 15% have been diagnosed with a mental health condition. Preliminary analysis reveals that persons with a mental health condition and those in recovery are more likely to smoke cigarettes (two and three times respectively) compared to those not reporting behavioral health issues. More importantly, respondents with behavioral health issues are equally or more likely than other smokers to have made a quit attempt in the past year and individuals in recovery are twice as likely as other smokers to have used nicotine replacement therapy in both recent and successful quit attempts. These findings clearly demonstrate that persons with behavioral health issues who smoke are motivated to quit smoking and are even more willing than other smokers to seek assistance to quit.