Mental health service user and staff perspectives on tobacco addiction and smoking cessation: A meta‐synthesis of published qualitative studies
Authors: Malone V. , Harrison R. , Daker‐White G. 
Published: March 2018

Accessible summary

What is known on the subject?

There are high rates of tobacco smoking in people living with mental illness, and rates are much higher than the general population.

People living with mental illness experience high rates of cardiovascular disease and other physical health problems as a result of tobacco smoking.

There is a lack of evidence on successful interventions for reducing the rates of smoking in people living with mental illness.

What this paper adds to existing knowledge?

A meta‐synthesis of data from a number of studies to support mental health nurses to access data quickly and support the translation of findings into practice.

Studies found staff working in mental health services expressed they did not have the confidence to adequately address smoking cessation for people living with mental illness.

People living with mental illness would like support and encouragement support to help them achieve successful smoking cessation.

People living with mental illness want support from mental health service staff to increase their confidence in smoking cessation rather than mainstream smoking cessation services.

What are the implications for practice?

Existing evidence‐based interventions for smoking cessation has had limited impact on the smoking rates of people living with mental illness.

Research is needed into innovative smoking cessation interventions and the service delivery of these interventions for people living with mental illness.

Interventions to support people living with mental illness in smoking cessation could be part of mainstream mental health service delivery.

Opportunities for smoking cessation training for mental health service staff could be provided.

Introduction

People with mental illness are up to three times more likely to smoke and experience greater challenges and less success when trying to quit and therefore have higher risk of smoking‐related morbidity and mortality. There is a lack of evidence on successful interventions to reduce the smoking rates in people living with serve mental illness. A meta‐synthesis was undertaken to summarize the data from multiple studies to inform the development of future smoking cessation intervention studies.

Methods

MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Embase and CINAHL were searched in March 2017. A total of 965 titles and abstracts were screened for inclusion with 29 papers reviewed in full and 15 studies that met inclusion criteria. Included studies were assessed for quality using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme tool. Key data across studies were examined and compared, and a thematic analysis was conducted.

Results

Analysis and synthesis developed five analytical themes: environmental and social context, living with a mental health illness, health awareness, financial awareness and provision of smoking cessation support. Themes generated the interpretive construct: “Whose role is it anyway?” which highlights tensions between staff perspectives on their role and responsibilities to providing smoking cessation support and support service users would like to receive.

Relevance to mental health nursing

Routine smoking cessation training for mental health professionals and research on innovative smoking cessation interventions to support people living with mental illness are needed. The Cochrane tobacco group has not found sufficient direct evidence of existing evidence‐based interventions that have beneficial effect on smoking in people living with mental illness. With this in mind, mental health professionals should be encouraged to engage in future research into the development of new interventions and consider innovative harm reduction strategies for smoking into their practice, to reduce the morbidity and mortality many people living with mental illness experience from tobacco smoking.