aiMH Lab - Time trends in access to smoking cessation support for

Journal article

M. Falcaro, D. Osborn, J. Hayes, Gary Coyle, L. Couperthwaite, S. Weich, K. Walters
BMJ Open, 2021

Semantic Scholar DOI PubMedCentral PubMed

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APA Click to copy
Falcaro, M., Osborn, D., Hayes, J., Coyle, G., Couperthwaite, L., Weich, S., & Walters, K. (2021). Time trends in access to smoking cessation support for people with depression or severe mental illness: a cohort study in English primary care. BMJ Open.

Chicago/Turabian Click to copy
Falcaro, M., D. Osborn, J. Hayes, Gary Coyle, L. Couperthwaite, S. Weich, and K. Walters. “Time Trends in Access to Smoking Cessation Support for People with Depression or Severe Mental Illness: a Cohort Study in English Primary Care.” BMJ Open (2021).

MLA Click to copy
Falcaro, M., et al. “Time Trends in Access to Smoking Cessation Support for People with Depression or Severe Mental Illness: a Cohort Study in English Primary Care.” BMJ Open, 2021.

BibTeX Click to copy

@article{m2021a,
  title = {Time trends in access to smoking cessation support for people with depression or severe mental illness: a cohort study in English primary care},
  year = {2021},
  journal = {BMJ Open},
  author = {Falcaro, M. and Osborn, D. and Hayes, J. and Coyle, Gary and Couperthwaite, L. and Weich, S. and Walters, K.}
}

Abstract

Objectives To investigate delivery of smoking cessation interventions, recorded quit attempts and successful quitting rates within primary care in smokers with depression or severe mental illness (SMI) compared with those without. Design Longitudinal cohort study using primary healthcare records. Setting English primary care. Participants 882 849 patients registered with participating practices recorded as current smokers during 2007–2014, including three groups: (1) 13 078 with SMI, (2) 55 630 with no SMI but recent depression and (3) 814 141 with no SMI nor recent depression. Outcomes Recorded advice to quit smoking, referrals to smoking cessation services, prescriptions for smoking cessation medication, recorded quit attempts and changes of smoking status. Results The majority (>70%) of smokers had recorded smoking cessation advice. This was consistently higher in those with SMI than the other cohorts of patients, although the gap greatly reduced in more recent years. Increases in smoking cessation advice over time were not accompanied by increases in recorded attempts to quit or changes of smoking status. Overall nicotine replacement therapy prescribing by general practitioners (GPs) was higher in those with SMI (10.1%) and depression (8.7%) than those without (5.9%), but a downward time trend was observed in all groups. Bupropion and varenicline prescribing was very low and lower for those with SMI. Few smokers (<5%) had referrals to stop smoking services, though this increased over time, but no significant differences were observed between those with and without mental health problems. Conclusions There was no evidence of consistent inequalities in access to GP-delivered smoking cessation interventions for people with mental health conditions. Smoking cessation advice was widely reported as taking place in all groups. In order to address the widening gap in smoking prevalence in those with poor mental health compared with those without, the emphasis should be on addressing the quality of advice and support given.