- Title
- Tobacco smoking in young people seeking treatment for mental ill-health: What are their attitudes, knowledge and behaviours towards quitting?
- Creator
- Brown, E.; O'Donoghue, B.; Kay-Lambkin, F.; Simmons, M.; Cementon, E.; Killackey, E.; White, S. L.; Chanen, A.; Bedi, G.; Adams, S.; Schely, C.; Do, T. U.; Sterjovska, A.; Moeller-Saxone, K.
- Relation
- Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine Vol. 38, Issue 1, p. 30-39
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/ipm.2020.18
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2021
- Description
- Introduction Tobacco smoking is a leading cause of preventable death and disease worldwide. Adults with mental ill-health smoke tobacco at substantially higher rates than other adults, with public health approaches effective in the population overall having less impact on those with mental ill-health. However, less is known about the tobacco smoking behaviours, attitudes and knowledge of young people with mental ill-health, despite this being the peak period of onset for both mental illness and cigarette smoking. Methods Young people attending a youth mental health centre (providing both primary and specialist care) in Melbourne, Australia were approached by youth peer researchers and asked to complete a survey about smoking behaviours, attitudes and knowledge. We examined smoking and associated attitudes in the sample overall, and as a function of the services accessed. Results In total, 114 young people completed the survey, with 56.3% reporting lifetime cigarette smoking, 42.0% smoking in the last 12 months and 28.6% in the past week. Of current regular smokers, 75.0% acknowledged they should quit in the future; however, only 23.5% planned to do so in the next month, with 44.4% confident that they could quit. Participants lacked knowledge about interactions between tobacco smoking, mental and physical health. Conclusions Youth presenting for mental ill-health had high rates of cigarette smoking relative to population rates. Presentation at youth mental health services may represent a critical window for early intervention to reduce the lifetime impacts of cigarette smoking in mental ill-health. Interventions to support smoking cessation in this group are urgently needed.
- Subject
- early intervention; tobacco smoking; youth mental health services
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1449192
- Identifier
- uon:43597
- Identifier
- ISSN:0790-9667
- Language
- eng
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