Individuals with mobility impairments are more likely to be smokers and less likely to quit, according to a recent study by University researchers.
“Nobody put the two together,” said Belinda Borrelli, adjunct professor of psychiatry and human behavior, who conceptualized the idea behind the study and is the lead author on the resulting paper.
Smoking addiction usually goes unnoticed in people with mobility impairments because this population has other critical issues to deal with, Borrelli said.
But smoking still poses a great threat for this population, she added. “Smoking often worsens their primary mobility impairment.”
The study, published in this month’s issue of the American Journal of Public Health, analyzed 13,308 adults with mobility impairments between 21 and 85 years of age, who responded to the 2011 National Health Interview Survey.
People were considered to have a mobility impairment if they used “some kind of device to ambulate” and would have difficulty walking a quarter of a mile without the device, Borrelli said.
The researchers found that 39.2 percent of adults with mobility impairments between the ages of 21 and 44 were smokers, compared to 21.5 percent of adults without mobility impairments. Among 45- to 64-year-olds, 31.2 percent of those with mobility impairments were smokers, while only 20.7 percent of adults without mobility impairments smoked.
The researchers also found that smokers with mobility impairments were less likely to quit smoking than those without these impairments. Under 20 percent of smokers with mobility impairments were attempting to quit, compared to 27.3 percent of those without mobility impairments.
“The most unexpected thing was that young women (with mobility impairments) had the highest smoking prevalence,” Borrelli said. Nearly 46 percent of women aged 21 to 44 in the survey said they were smokers, compared to the nearly 19 percent of women without mobility impairments who smoke.
“It has been well-documented that smoking rates are higher in low-income populations, people with substance use problems and mental health problems, and people living with HIV,” Christopher Kahler, professor of behavioral and social sciences and chair of the department, who was not involved in the study, wrote in an email to The Herald.
“This study is important in its documentation of a significant health disparity associated with mobility impairment, which has received relatively scant research attention,” Kahler added.
People with mobility impairments usually smoke cigarettes for personal enjoyment and to reduce the stress they experience from their conditions, said Catherine Dube, adjunct associate professor of behavioral and social sciences, who worked on early parts of the research.
In addition to helping with the research, Dube has also been involved with designing videos to address smoking addiction in people with mobility disorders. The videos include the experiences of people with mobility impairments who quit smoking and the benefits of their doing so, she said.
These interventions went well, she said, adding that “the creative process was quite rewarding.”
But despite the advancements the researchers contributed, “further research needs to be done,” Borrelli said. For example, “more tailored treatments need to be targeted to this population,” she added.
There is still minimal intervention related to treating addictions in people with mobility impairments because it is not seen as a priority, she said.
“The high rates of smoking in those with mobility impairments calls for a public health response to understand and address the causes of persistent smoking in this population,” Kahler wrote.
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