Spirituality may help smokers kick the butt

A new study has found that many smokers are receptive to spiritual beliefs and practices, and may benefit from their own spiritual resources, when attempting to kick the butt.

Washington, May 8 : A new study has found that many smokers are receptive to spiritual beliefs and practices, and may benefit from their own spiritual resources, when attempting to kick the butt.

The study was conducted by a team of researchers led by David Gonzales at Oregon Health and Science University Smoking Cessation Centre.

As part of the study, researchers surveyed 104 current smokers, aged 18 or older who were not attempting to quit smoking. Study participants were equally male and female, on average 38 years old, and had smoked about 17 cigarettes a day for approximately 21 years. The anonymous surveys included questions about smoking behaviours, and spiritual practices and beliefs.

Researchers found that out of the 104 participants, 92 had some history of using spiritual resources, and of those, 78 percent believed that using those resources when making a quit attempt could be helpful. Seventy-seven percent believed having treatment staff encourage the use of spiritual resources to help them quit could be beneficial.

"We theorised the absence of spiritual resources in smoking cessation programs may be due to perceived resistance from smokers or, until recently, the social acceptance of smoking, which may have prevented patients and providers from considering the health effects of tobacco dependence as life-threatening," Gonzales said.

"We know that smoking cessation medications coupled with behavioural interventions increase quit rates, but quitting is still difficult and some smokers need more support in order to quit successfully. We may be missing opportunities to assist these smokers," Gonzales added.

"Our findings suggest that although not all clinicians want to talk about spirituality with their patients, those who do feel comfortable doing so will likely find most patients who smoke are receptive. Asking smoking patients if they have a spiritual practice or belief may be important to their care," Gonzales explained.

Researchers concluded that spirituality is becoming a mainstream in medicine and is accepted as integral to the treatment of many medical conditions, especially cancer. Surveys show that patients would like their providers to discuss spirituality related to their health care.

Along with this opportunity there is a challenge for health care providers to respect spiritual beliefs and practices that may be different from their own. Further investigation and program development on how to include spirituality in mainstream tobacco dependence treatment is warranted.

The findings of the research were published in Nicotine and Tobacco Research.

ANI