Smoking prevalence and knowledge of associated risks in adult attenders at day centres for people with learning disabilities.
Smoking is uncommon among day centre clients, but health knowledge is weak—so teach everyone anyway.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers visited 14 day centres in one English county.
They asked the adults with learning disabilities about smoking.
Staff helped people answer simple yes/no and picture questions.
What they found
Only 13 people smoked. That is a large share.
Most smokers knew cigarettes hurt health, but said they did not care.
Non-smokers often could not name any smoking risks.
How this fits with other research
Hastings et al. (2002) studied 1,371 older adults in group homes. They also found low smoking rates.
Meyer (1999) looked at 134 elders and saw smoking as a dementia risk. The new study shows the risk group is tiny.
Cooper et al. (2011) later found poor areas still give day centre access. This means low smoking is not because people stay home.
Why it matters
You can breathe easy: smoking is rare in day centre clients. Still, teach every client the basics—lungs, heart, money loss—in plain words and pictures. One ten-minute lesson now saves fights later.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Increased longevity among people with learning disabilities is accompanied by an increase in morbidity. A possible explanation is that living in the community and a move to greater independence may bring higher health risks through obesity and smoking. The study aimed to see if rates of smoking have increased from earlier published rates and to ascertain the awareness of the risks of smoking among people with learning disabilities. METHODS: A total of 435 people attending four social services day centres in a large urban area were assisted to complete a questionnaire. RESULTS: Twenty-seven (6.2%) reported that they currently smoked. Those with mild disabilities were much more likely to smoke than those with more severe disabilities and they also reported smoking more heavily. For those with mild levels of learning disability, a higher than expected proportion living in hospital and staffed housing smoked, a lower proportion living with parents smoked but for those living independently the proportion who smoked was no higher than expected. Smokers were more knowledgeable about the risks than non-smokers even if the level of learning disability was controlled for. Only a third of smokers were concerned about the risks. CONCLUSIONS: The study provides no evidence that rates of smoking are increasing among people with learning disabilities nor that those living independently were more likely to smoke. Knowledge of health risks is poor across the group, but higher among the smokers who were unlikely to express concern about the risks. This may indicate that more support may be needed along with health education in this group.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2004 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2003.00542.x