Smoking history, knowledge, and attitudes among older residents of a long-term care facility

Abstract

In the absence of empirical literature from the resident perspective, this study provided a first assessment of smoking history, knowledge of the risks of smoking, the risks of environmental tobacco exposure, and the benefits of quitting among older (age 50+) nursing home unit residents, as well as readiness to quit, barriers to quitting, frequency of cessation advice by healthcare givers, and quit-attempt history of residents who smoke. Subjects were 25 smokers and 70 non-smokers housed on long-term nursing home units in a county hospital. Results indicated that smoking status for the majority of residents was similar to when they were admitted, although smokers smoked fewer cigarettes (M = 11.6, SD = 9.2) than prior to admission (M = 18.6, SD = 11.8). Smokers were less likely than non-smokers to agree that smoking is harmful to their health. Both smokers and non-smokers were not well informed of the dangers of passive smoke exposure. The majority of smokers were in precontemplation (no interest in quitting within the next 6 months). Fewer than half of residents who smoked reported receiving cessation advice from physicians (40%) or nurses (36%), and no in-house cessation programs were available. These results suggest gaps in knowledge and resources for smoking cessation in this setting and an opportunity for intervention. This study begins to build an evidence base from the residents' perspective that can be used by healthcare providers, administrators, and policy makers in addressing smoking in the nursing home.

Smoking knowledge and behavior in the United States: Sociodemographic, smoking status, and geographic patterns

“…Current smokers were more likely to believe harm reduction smoking myths and least likely to believe that smoking increases the chances of getting cancer ''a lot.'' These findings are congruent with the body of research demonstrating a tendency among smokers to underestimate their risk of smoking-related disease (Ayanian & Cleary, 1999;Carosella et al, 2002;Cummings et al, 2004;Dillard et al, 2006;Weinstein, Marcus, & Moser, 2005).…”

“…Studies from the broader field of cancer prevention have demonstrated that accurate knowledge is a central component of effective health promotion (Finney Rutten, Meissner, Breen, Vernon, & Rimer, 2005), and this appears to hold true for smoking behavior as well. Research suggests that knowledge and beliefs about smoking are clinically relevant in that such factors may be associated with key behaviors such as cessation and intent to quit (Carosella, Ossip-Kline, Watt, & Podgorski, 2002;Cummings et al, 2004;Dillard, McCaul, & Klein, 2006;Kerr, Watson, Tolson, Lough, & Brown, 2006). These findings, coupled with the observation that overall reductions in smoking prevalence in the population tend to obscure tobacco-related morbidity and mortality that persists among certain ethnic/ racial minority populations (Ries et al, 2004) and those with lower socioeconomic status (CDC, 2004;Singh et al, 2003), suggest the need for better understanding of how knowledge of risks and endorsement of misinformation or myths about tobacco use vary by sociodemographic and geographic factors.…”

Knowledge and Beliefs about Smoking and Cancer among Women in Five European Countries

“…Current smokers tend to minimize the health risks of cigarette smoking, and were much more likely to disagree that quitting smoking decreases the risk of lung cancer. Similar results have been reported from several studies in Europe and the United States, and the majority of current smokers underestimate the risk of smokingrelated conditions, such as cancer and heart diseases (18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29). Therefore, it is important that women need to learn that quitting smoking lowers their lung cancer risk, as compared with women who continue to smoke.…”

“…Previous research also suggests that knowledge and beliefs about smoking are clinically relevant in that such factors may be associated with key behaviors such as cessation and intent to quit (27)(28)(29)(30)(31). It is therefore critical that current smokers should be accurately informed about the health risks from smoking.…”

Developing Smoking Cessation Program for Older Canadian People: An Application of Precede-Proceed Model

“…It has been reported in the previous literature that smoking among those population is classified as one of the highest risk factors that contributing to cause seven chronic diseases and increases the mortality rate among older people (Carosella, Ossip-Klein, Watt, & Podgorski, 2002 Services, 2004). However, the mortality rate among older people related to their current smoking behavior is twice than those who are in the same age but never smoked (Health Canada, 2002).…”