The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: Hazelden Foundation sought to address the needs of an underserved population, the chemically dependent individual, in relation to tobacco cessation. The chemically dependent population has far more tobacco dependent individuals, 75 t0 95% as opposed to the general population, 20.9%. Furthermore this population is seen as more resistant to cessation programming, success rates for tobacco cessation are less, and they tend to start to use tobacco earlier and to use at a higher rate than those who do not experience this difficulty.

Methods: This effort focused on, the stage of change of the individual and the presentation of appropriate services. Every patient that attended Hazelden Treatment Center and remained long enough to complete the assessment phase completed a Stages of Change questionnaire. Services were then offered to the individual depending on the stage of change and the willingness of the individual to participate in the service. At follow up, one, six, and twelve months the individual's stage of change was collated in respect to tobacco use.

Results: Of the 1175 surveyed 534 indicated a preference for whether they wanted to quite using tobacco or not, 48.0% reported they were not ready to quit, 24.3% planned to quit within the following six months, 14.7% planned to quit within the following 30 days, 3.3% had quit in the previous six months, 1.2% had quit for more than six months. The correlation of planning to quit at the time of the survey and tobacco use at six and twelve months.