Authors:
Lawrence D, Hafekost J, Hull P, Mitrou F, Zubrick SR
Authors notes:
BMC Public Health. 2013;13:462
Keywords:
smoking, mental illness, smoking cessation, socio-economic status
Abstract:
High rates of smoking and lower rates of smoking cessation are known to be associated with common mental disorders such as anxiety and depression, and with individual and community measures of socioeconomic status.
It is not known to what extent mental illness and socioeconomic status might be jointly associated with smoking behaviour.
We set out to examine the relationship between mental illness, measures of socioeconomic disadvantage and both current smoking and smoking cessation rates.
The association between mental illness and smoking is not explained by the association between mental illness and socioeconomic status.
There are strong socioeconomic and psychosocial gradients in both current smoking and smoking cessation.
Incorporating knowledge of the other adverse factors in smokers' lives may increase the penetration of tobacco control interventions in population groups that have historically benefitted less from these activities.