Cited by 122Smoking Behavior and CessationMental Health Treatment and AccessSubstance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes

Non-specific psychological distress, smoking status and smoking cessation: United States National Health Interview Survey 2005

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Lawrence, David, Mitrou, Francis, Zubrick, Stephen R·2011·BMC Public Health

Abstract

BACKGROUND: It is well established that smoking rates in people with common mental disorders such as anxiety or depressive disorders are much higher than in people without mental disorders. It is less clear whether people with these mental disorders want to quit smoking, attempt to quit smoking or successfully quit smoking at the same rate as people without such disorders. METHODS: We used data from the 2005 Cancer Control Supplement to the United States National Health Interview Survey to explore the relationship between psychological distress as measured using the K6 scale and smoking cessation, by comparing current smokers who had tried unsuccessfully to quit in the previous 12 months to people able to quit for at least 7 to 24 months prior to the survey. We also used data from the 2007 Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing to examine the relationship between psychological distress (K6) scores and duration of mental illness. RESULTS: The majority of people with high K6 psychological distress scores also meet diagnostic criteria for mental disorders, and over 90% of these people had first onset of mental disorder more than 2 years prior to the survey. We found that people with high levels of non-specific psychological distress were more likely to be current smokers. They were as likely as people with low levels of psychological distress to report wanting to quit smoking, trying to quit smoking, and to have used smoking cessation aids. However, they were significantly less likely to have quit smoking. CONCLUSIONS: The strong association between K6 psychological distress scores and mental disorders of long duration suggests that the K6 measure is a useful proxy for ongoing mental health problems. As people with anxiety and depressive disorders make up a large proportion of adult smokers in the US, attention to the role of these disorders in smoking behaviours may be a useful area of further investigation for tobacco control.

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  • People with mental health disorders have a 25% lower success rate in quitting smoking compared to people without such disorders, despite similar desire to quit.

    “Although people with mental health disorders share a similar desire to quit smoking compared to people without such disorders, their success rate is 25% lower [6, 7].”

    From Can an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy-Based Smartphone App Help Individuals with Mental Health Disorders Quit Smoking? (2024) · cites this paper as [7]

    The Discussion reports that people with moderate or high psychological distress were more likely to want to quit but less likely to quit successfully. Results Tables 4 and 6 support that pattern, but the study measures psychological distress rather than diagnosed mental health disorders, and it does not report a uniform 25% lower success rate: adjusted odds of successful quitting vary by distress level. (LLM, conf=0.88)

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Authors
Lawrence, D., Mitrou, F., & Zubrick, S. R.
Affiliations
The Kids Research Institute Australia (AU)
Corresponding author
Lawrence, David
Venue
BMC Public Health
Published
2011-04-22
Volume
11
Issue
1
Pages
256-256
ISSN
1471-2458 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2110603196
Cited by
122
References
63
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 6
FWCI
8.07
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • BMC Public Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • UWA Profiles and Research Repository (UWA) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
  • eSpace (Curtin University) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Australian Government
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Smoking Behavior and Cessation
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
Keywords
psychological distress, smoking cessation, smoking status, mental illness, anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, tobacco control, smoking cessation aids
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Female, Health Surveys, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Smoking, Stress, Psychological, United States, Smoking Cessation, Young Adult

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