141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

281597
Behavioral health clients and smoking cessation treatment outcomes

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Jeffrey Turner , Research and Evaluation Group, Public Health Management Corporation, Philadelphia, PA
Rose Malinowski-Weingartner, MPH, CPH , Research and Evaluation Group, Public Health Management Corporation, Philadephia, PA
Michael Halenar, MPH , Health Promotion Council, Philadelphia, PA
Kristin O. Minot, MS , Research & Evaluation Group, Public Health Management Corporation, Philadelphia, PA
More than half of the cigarettes smoked in the US are smoked by people with co-occurring behavioral health issues. Research from the 2010 PHMC Household Health Survey has shown that these populations are as likely, or more likely, than other smokers to want to quit smoking and to make a quit attempt. Smokers with mental health conditions are statistically significantly more likely to try to quit smoking than smokers without these conditions, and smokers in recovery are as likely as smokers not in recovery to try to quit.

The SEPA Tobacco Control Project's initiative to reach smokers in behavioral health (BH) settings enrolled 244 BH clients between February and December of 2012, or 14% of the 1,708 total clients enrolled during that period. Initial data from baseline surveys show that upon enrollment BH clients on average smoke more cigarettes per day than other clients and their average motivation (7.7 on a scale of 1 to 10) to quit smoking is significantly less than that of other clients (8.5). Compared to other clients fewer BH clients stop smoking but on average they do have significant reductions in the number of cigarettes they smoke per day.

This presentation will compare BH clients to other smokers enrolled in cessation programs, and highlight the similarities and differences between the populations and their treatment outcomes. These comparisons will help us understand the characteristics of BH clients in order to formulate the most successful approaches to their tobacco treatment.

Learning Areas:
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Program planning
Public health or related organizational policy, standards, or other guidelines
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Evaluate differences between smokers with serious behavioral health concerns and other smokers enrolled in smoking cessation programs. Analyze differences in demographic and tobacco-related characteristics of smokers with and without co-occurring behavioral health concerns Identify ways in which these findings can inform future cessation treatment for both smokers with behavioral health issues and other smokers enrolled in cessation programs.

Keywords: Tobacco, Mental Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: As a member of PHMC's Research and Evaluation Group I have worked on the Southeast Pennsylvania Tobacco Control Project for close to two years. I am also currently in the process of completing my MPH degree at Thomas Jefferson University, during which time I have worked on multiple tobacco related research projects.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.