Addressing inequalities in access to smoking cessation support for people with recognised poor mental health problems
Research Team: Professor Kate Walters, Professor David Osborn, Dr Milena Falcaro, Dr Joseph Hayes, Professor Robert West, Professor Yoav Ben-Shlomo, Dr Hannah Jordan, Professor Scott Weich, Jonathan O’Sullivan, Marina Chrysou, Lisa Couperthwaite, Gary Coyle & Dr Agnes Hann
Who's involved: University College London, University of Bristol, University of Sheffield & Islington Council
August 2017 - August 2018
People with mental health problems have higher rates of cardiovascular disease (heart attacks and stroke), and die 10-20 years younger from non-mental health causes than the general population. This may be explained by differences in health behaviours and lifestyles, and access to healthcare services.
Smoking rates are very high in people with poor mental health, and smoking is thought to be the largest single factor accounting for this difference. At the moment smoking cessation support is widely offered to the general population through primary care, but specific support is not routinely offered to people with mental health problems in this setting.
There are common misconceptions that people with mental health problems may be less motivated to quit, despite evidence suggesting motivation levels are similar to the general population.
People with poor mental health have similar success rates when supported to stop smoking, with positive benefits for mental and physical health. However the levels of access to smoking cessation support in people with poor mental health, compared to the general population is not known.
This study will analyse routinely collected healthcare data from a large national UK primary care database that contains information from more than 500 GP practices and 12 million people, supported by service user research advisors (people with a mental health problem who are also smokers or former smokers).
This research will evaluate smoking cessation in people who smoke and have depression or severe mental illness such as schizophrenia, compared with the general population. The relative rates of: smoking cessation advice given by GPs/nurses; smoking cessation services referrals; smoking cessation drug therapy prescribed; recorded quit attempts; and changes in smoking status to ex-smoker, will be assessed.
The research will further explore whether other factors impact on any differences seen, such as age, gender, ethnic group, living in a deprived neighbourhood, or geographical region. This will provide invaluable information on whether and how far differences in access to smoking cessation support in primary care for people with mental health problems need to be addressed.
This project aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Smokefree Homes Service in Stoke on Trent to see if it was an effective way to reduce children's exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and make homes smoke free.
September 2016 - April 2018
This research project evaluated the babyClear© programme to find out if it was an effective way to reduce the number of mums-to-be smoking in the North East of England.
April 2013 - July 2015
