Exploring Smoking, Mental Health and Smoking-related Disease in a Nationally Representative Sample of Older Adults in Ireland: a Retrospective Secondary Analysis

Authors

Annette Burns, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
Judith Strawbridge, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
Luke Clancy, Technological University Dublin
Frank Doyle, Technological University Dublin

Document Type

Article

Rights

Available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike 4.0 International Licence

Disciplines

1.6 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Publication Details

Journal of Psychosomatic Research

Abstract

Objective

Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death among individuals with mental health difficulties (MHD). The aim of the current study was to determine the impact of smoking on the physical health of older adults with MHD in Ireland and to explore the extent to which smoking mediated or moderated associations between MHD and smoking-related diseases.

Methods

Cross-sectional analysis of a nationally representative sample of 8175 community-dwelling adults aged 50 and over from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) was undertaken. Multivariate adjusted logistic regression models were used to assess the association between MHD, smoking (current/past/never) and smoking-related diseases (respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, smoking-related cancers). A number of variables were employed to identify individuals with MHD, including prescribed medication, self-reported diagnoses and self-report scales.

Results

MHD was associated with current (RRRs ranging from 1.84 [1.50 to 2.26] to 4.31 [2.47 to 7.53]) and former (RRRs ranging from 1.26 [1.05 to 1.52] to 1.99 [1.19 to 3.33]) smoking and also associated with the presence of smoking-related disease (ORs ranging from 1.24 [1.01 to 1.51] to 1.62 [1.00 to 2.62]). Smoking did not mediate and rarely moderated associations between MHD and smoking-related disease.

Conclusions

Older adults in Ireland with MHD are more likely to smoke than those without such difficulties. They also experience higher rates of smoking-related disease, although smoking had no mediating and no consistent moderating role in these analyses. Findings underscore the need for attention to the physical health of those with MHD including support in smoking cessation.

DOI

10.1016/j.jpsychores.2017.05.005

Recommended Citation

Burns A, Strawbridge JD, Clancy L, Doyle F. (2017). Exploring smoking, mental health and smoking-related disease in a nationally representative sample of older adults in Ireland – A retrospective secondary analysis. Journal of Psychosomatic Research98, pp.78-86. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychores.2017.05.005

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.