Longitudinal rates of smoking in a schizophrenia sample
- J O Goldberg, Department of Psychology, York University, 4700 Keele St., North York, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3; jgoldber{at}yorku.ca
- Received 17 January 2008
- Accepted 17 May 2008
- Published Online First 3 June 2008
Abstract
Objectives: Despite the well documented link between high rates of smoking and schizophrenia, there have been no longitudinal studies that have looked at rates of smoking and associated factors over time. This prospective study examined the longitudinal rates of smoking in a schizophrenia clinic sample over a decade.
Methods: Longitudinal survey research was conducted in a well established community-based psychiatric rehabilitation program in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, providing long-term intensive case management and rehabilitation skills training. Stable community outpatients diagnosed with schizophrenia were surveyed initially in 1995 (n = 102) and then resurveyed 11 years later in 2006 (n = 76). The main outcome measure was self-report of smoking status.
Results: Smoking rates dropped significantly over time, with evidence that the number of “quitters” tripled over the past decade and the number of “everyday” smokers decreased by almost a third from 63.2% down to 43.3% (p<0.001).
Conclusions: The findings from the present study suggest that it is possible to obtain reduced smoking prevalence over time in a selected schizophrenia outpatient sample, though further research is required to better understand the factors related to quitting smoking in individuals with schizophrenia.
Footnotes
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Funding: Assistance was received from the CSVR Foundation, a non-profit charitable organisation that provides research funds for studies in the area of community, social and vocational rehabilitation for projects pertaining to persistent mental illness. The amount of the award was $2000.
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Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests except as indicated elsewhere that there was assistance from the CSVR Foundation. The amount of the award was $2000, which helped fund JVE to present portions of the paper at the 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health, Washington, DC, USA, 12–15 July 2006.
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Ethics approval: Ethics approval was obtained for this work. Participants gave informed written consent and were assured that the information provided was confidential.
