Smoking cessation in young people with severe mental illness who smoke
People with severe mental illness (SMI) experience a mortality gap of 15-20 years and one of the main reasons for this is due to preventable physical health conditions such as heart disease, hypertension and diabetes. Smoking is one of the main contributory factors to these preventable health conditions and people
with SMI are more likely to smoke than those without SMI. The SCIMITAR trials were commissioned to develop and test a smoking cessation intervention for people with SMI. The SCIMITAR intervention was found to be effective and is in the process of being rolled out as part of the NHS Long Term Plan. However,
the mean age of those taking part in the trials was 46 and the majority of people who took part stated one of the reasons for joining the study was because they were experiencing physical health conditions due tosmoking. Furthermore six of the 526 people who took part in the study had died of smoking related disease
within a year of joining the study. According to ONS data in 2021 13.3% of people aged 18+ in the UK smoke with the highest proportion of current smokers being in the 25-34 age group where 15.8% were current smokers. Almost all of people with SMI who have recently accessed smoking cessation interventions in the
community in Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust are aged over 35 years. Furthermore smoking cessation is a cross cutting aim in CORE2 PLUS 5 approach to reducing health inequalities.
This indicates the need to explore what works in terms of engaging younger people (aged <40) who are less likely to have experienced the physical ill effects of smoking, in smoking cessation interventions.
Aim
To conduct initial scoping work in preparation for submitting a funding bid to obtain funding to develop an effective smoking cessation intervention which engages younger people (<40 years) in smoking cessation