CDC MMWR-- Smoking among U.S. adults with mental illness

The CDC Vital Signs program, launched in 2010, addresses a single, important public health topic each month. The 3rd Vital Signs on tobacco use will be released today at noon, EST.

Today’s Vital Signs presents the latest information about adult smoking in the United States among people with mental illness. The report finds that a significantly higher percentage of adults with mental illness are current smokers, compared with adults who have no mental illness.

Researchers analyzed combined data from SAMHSA’s 2009-2011 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) to calculate state and national estimates of cigarette smoking among adults aged 18 years and older who had any mental illness.

The report concludes that increasing awareness of the high smoking prevalence in this population is needed. In addition to investing in comprehensive tobacco prevention and control programs at CDC-recommended levels, better coordination between tobacco control and mental health programs at the national, state, and community levels is needed. Recent research has shown that, like other smokers, adults with mental illness who smoke want to quit, can quit, and benefit from proven stop-smoking treatments. Mental health providers can benefit by making their campuses 100% tobacco-free and by making smoking cessation part of an overall approach to treatment and wellness.

Some of the key findings include:

• Current smoking among U.S. adults with mental illness is 70 percent higher than smoking among adults with no mental illness.
• About 36% of adults with mental illness are smokers, compared with 21% of adults who do not have a mental illness.
• Nearly 1 in 5 adults in the U.S.—about 45.7 million Americans—have some form of mental illness.

This e-mail contains advance copies of several Vital Signs materials, including the Vital Signs Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) article, a four-page consumer fact sheet, and a CDC press release. This edition of CDC Vital Signs will be released at 12:00 p.m., today, February 5, 2013 (EST) in conjunction with a telephone-only media telebriefing; all attached materials are embargoed until that time. After the embargo is lifted, we invite you to please share the CDC Vital Signs information broadly with your colleagues and partners. We also invite you to visit the Vital Signs Web page to find the Vital Signs MMWR article, fact sheet, podcast, and CDC.gov feature article. Also, please take advantage of CDC’s social media tools, such as the RSS feed, Everyday Health Widget, and Vital Signs buttons. Also "Like” and "follow” CDCTobaccoFree on Facebook and Twitter for live posts specific to the Vital Signs report.

Feel free to join today’s media telebriefing using the following "Non-Media” bridge line and passcode.

Bridge Line: 800-369-1605

International: 1-630-395-0331

Passcode: CDC Media

Links: CDC Press Release, MMWR article, VS Fact Sheet

Source: CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health