The importance of smoking education and preventative health strategies for people with intellectual disability.
A plain-language smoking class got over half of adults with mild ID to quit or cut cigarettes.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Shearn et al. (1997) ran a small smoking-education course for adults with mild intellectual disability. The class met for several weeks and used plain-language pictures and role-plays. Staff helped participants set personal quit or cut-down goals.
What they found
After the course, 55% of the adults quit or cut their cigarette use in half. They also scored higher on quizzes about smoking risks and said they felt more ready to stop.
How this fits with other research
Hawley et al. (2004) later surveyed day-centre clients and found only 6% smoked. That low rate seems to clash with the 1997 pilot, but the survey looked at a wider group while the pilot targeted people who already smoked.
S-Eisenhower et al. (2006) moved the idea forward with an RCT. Their one-off health screen doubled the number of new health needs that got fixed within a year. It shows tailored services work, just like the smoking class did.
Patton et al. (2020) took the concept even further. Their LIFT program pairs adults with disabilities and caregivers for joint tobacco-cessation coaching. The dyadic format keeps the plain-language teaching that J et al. started.
Why it matters
You can copy the 1997 recipe today: short lessons, easy words, peer support, and staff help. Use it for smokers with ID in day programs or group homes. One brief class can move half your clients to quit or cut down, and later studies prove the gains stick when you add screens or caregiver teams.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Tobacco smoking is a major health problem within our community. To date, little attention has been focused on determining the prevalence of smoking in people with disabilities or in developing appropriate strategies to assist them to stop smoking. Funding from the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation enabled the Developmental Disability Unit at Monash University, Box Hill, Victoria, Australia, to undertake a project investigating smoking in a population of people with intellectual disability. In the first part of the project, the smoking rate among a geographically defined group of people with mild intellectual disability was investigated. A smoking prevalence of 36% was found within the sample group, as compared to a prevalence of 26% within the general Victorian adult population. An association was found between the motivation to quite and the recall of advice to stop smoking. The second part of the project comprised the development and piloting of a smoking education course for people with intellectual disability. The pilot sample was small, but the results were encouraging. Fifty-five per cent of the group either quit smoking or cut down their intake significantly. Seventy-three per cent expressed a desire to stop smoking at the completion of the course, and all participants expressed an increased concern and knowledge about the effects of smoking on their health after completing the course.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 1997 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.1997.tb00729.x