An Exploration of Smoking Among People Attending Residential Substance Abuse Treatment: Prevalence and Outcomes at Three Months Post-Discharge

ABSTRACT

Objectives: Smoking continues to be a major health concern for people with a history of alcohol or other substance use problems. The current research is aimed to (1) describe the prevalence of smoking in residential addictions treatment services and (2) compare characteristics of people who had or had not quit smoking. Methods: Participants were attending residential substance abuse treatment provided by the Australian Salvation Army. These programs are up to 10 months in length and offer a range of low-intensity smoking cessation supports. Measures of smoking, substance use, and clinical characteristics were collected from 2008 to 2015 at baseline and three months post-discharge from treatment (N = 702). Results: At baseline, 86% of people were smokers (n = 606). At follow-up, only 48 participants who were smokers at baseline (7%) had quit smoking. Participants who had quit smoking at follow-up also reported higher rates of abstinence from alcohol or other substances at follow-up (72%) than people who had not quit smoking (46%; OR = 2.95, 95% CI [1.52, 5.74]). Conclusions: There is potential for smoking cessation to be better addressed as part of routine care in substance abuse treatment settings. Future research should evaluate the provision of more systematic smoking cessation interventions within these settings.

KEYWORDS:

• Smoking
• cessation
• prevalence
• addiction
• substance abuse treatment
• the Salvation Army

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to sincerely thank the management, staff and participants of the Salvation Army services for supporting this work. Preliminary results from this work were presented at the Conference of the Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and Other Drugs, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, October 31–December 2, 2016.

Disclosures

The research team has an ongoing research consultancy with the Salvation Army to evaluate their program activities and help to guide service improvements. There are no restrictions placed on publication by the Salvation Army.

Funding

This research was partially funded by the Salvation Army, Australia as part of a research consultancy with the University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia.