Disabled People Tend to Smoke More

Recently, the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention has conducted the first national survey to find out the percentage of smokers among people with disabilities. The study was carried out as a random telephone survey which included about 294,000 adults able to answer the phone and not confined to institutions.

The results of the study have confirmed a suggestion that disabled people tend to smoke more: one in four people in this group smokes, compared to only one in five among the non-disabled. The highest rates of smoking are attributed to people with alcohol addictions, mental illnesses, clinical depression, and disorders affecting their behaviour and social life. Although this new data is useful to estimate the overall situation with smoking in the U.S., the results are far from being surprising. The researches say that, if the survey had been more inclusive, the rate of smoking among the disabled might have been determined even higher.

In accordance with the study, over 10 million of disabled people in the country are smokers. They tend to have a low income, and many are below the poverty line and socially marginalized, which is directly correlated with an increased rate of smoking. However, among poor people with disabilities, about 37% smoke, compared to only 23% among low-income people without disabilities, which points out to the fact that, in smoking, disability matters even more than a financial situation.

The state of Delaware has proven to have the highest rate of smoking among disabled people - 39%, compared to 22% smoking rate among inhabitants without disabilities. The cause of this situation remains unclear.

Another fact is that smokers with disabilities are constantly warned about the numerous dangers of their harmful habit and are advised by their doctors and nurses to quit smoking. They are recommended to stop smoking more often that non-disabled people, but at the same time usually are not told how to quit.

Darlene Marlow