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An audit of a smoking cessation programme for people with an intellectual disability resident in a forensic unit
- Authors:
- CHESTER Verity, GREEN Fatima N., ALEXANDER Regi T.
- Journal article citation:
- Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities, 5(1), January 2011, pp.33-41.
- Publisher:
- Emerald
This article first briefly reviews the literature on smoking and smoking cessation programmes for people with intellectual disability. A smoking cessation programme in place in a forensic in-patient service for people with intellectual disabilities in the East of England is then described together with the findings of an audit to establish the prevalence and significant associations of smoking in this group and the effect of the intervention. The intervention focused on health education and nicotine replacement therapies. The audit included 79 patients, 48 of whom were smokers on admission. Fifteen subjects gave up smoking while resident in the service. Those who did not give up significantly reduced the number of cigarettes they smoked per day. Female smokers appeared less likely to give up than men. Length of stay and treatment with antipsychotic medication were not significantly linked to smoking behaviour. There was a significant relationship between the level of security in which a patient was resident and smoking. Patients treated on medium secure wards were significantly more likely to be smokers than those in lower levels of security. The authors conclude that this simple smoking cessation programme appeared to be effective in cutting down smoking rates and tobacco consumption in this population. They comment that the findings need to be viewed with caution as the audit was limited by the lack of a control group and conducted in a single service.