Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Jul 14:14:304.
doi: 10.1186/1472-6963-14-304.

Smoking and its treatment in addiction services: clients' and staff behaviour and attitudes

Camilla Cookson, John Strang, Elena Ratschen, Gay Sutherland, Emily Finch, Ann McNeill  1
Affiliations

Smoking and its treatment in addiction services: clients' and staff behaviour and attitudes

Camilla Cookson et al. BMC Health Serv Res. .

Abstract

Background: High smoking prevalence has been observed among those misusing other substances. This study aimed to establish smoking behaviours and attitudes towards nicotine dependence treatment among clients and staff in substance abuse treatment settings.

Methods: Cross-sectional questionnaire survey of staff and clients in a convenience sample of seven community and residential addiction services in, or with links to, Europe's largest provider of mental health care, the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. Survey items assessed smoking behaviour, motivation to quit, receipt of and attitudes towards nicotine dependence treatment.

Results: Eighty five percent (n = 163) and 97% (n = 145) response rates of clients and staff were achieved. A high smoking prevalence was observed in clients (88%) and staff (45%); of current smokers, nearly all clients were daily smokers, while 42% of staff were occasional smokers. Despite 79% of clients who smoked expressing a desire to quit and 46% interested in receiving advice, only 15% had been offered support to stop smoking during their current treatment episode with 56% reported never having been offered support. Staff rated smoking treatment significantly less important than treatment of other substances (p < 0.001), and only 29% of staff thought it should be addressed early in a client's primary addiction treatment, compared with 48% of clients.

Conclusions: A large unmet clinical need is evident with a widespread failure to deliver smoking cessation interventions to an extraordinarily high prevalence population of smokers in addiction services. This is despite the majority of smokers reporting motivation to quit. Staff smoking and attitudes may be a contributory factor in these findings.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. World Health Organisation. Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic. The MPOWER package. 2008. http://www.who.int/tobacco/mpower/en/
    1. Harris J, Best D, Man L-H, Welch S, Gossop M, Strang J. Changes in cigarette smoking among alcohol and drug misusers during inpatient detoxification. Addict Biol. 2000;14:443–450. - PubMed
    1. Best D, Lehmann P, Gossop M, Harris J, Noble A, Strang J. Eating too little, smoking and drinking too much: wider lifestyle problems mong methadone maintenance patients. Addict Res. 1998;14(6):489–498.
    1. Tacke U, Wolff K, Finch E, Strang J. The effect of tobacco smoking on subjective symptoms of inadequacy (“not holding”) of methadone dose among opiate addicts in methadone maintenance treatment. Addict Biol. 2001;14(2):137–145. - PubMed
    1. The NHS Information Centre. Statistics on Smoking: England. 2012. https://catalogue.ic.nhs.uk/publications/public-health/smoking/smok-eng-....

Publication types