Offer and Use of Smoking-Cessation Support by Depression/Anxiety Status: A Cross-Sectional Survey.

Introduction: Higher levels of anxiety and depression have been found to be associated with greater difficulty in stopping smoking. This raises the question as to whether mood disturbance may be associated with exposure to, and use of, quitting support. Aims: This study examined whether General Practitioner (GP) advice and/or offer of support, or stop-smoking service use differed between smokers reporting or not reporting depression/anxiety. Methods: Data came from the Smoking Toolkit Study. Participants were 1,162 English adults who reported currently smoking or having stopped within the past 12 months, aged 40+ years, surveyed between April and September 2012. Anxiety/depression was assessed by the mood disturbance item of the EuroQol five dimensions questionnaire (EQ-5D). This was compared to recall of GP quit advice and/or support, and stop-smoking aid use adjusting for age, gender, and social grade. Results/Findings: Smokers reporting depression/anxiety were more likely to recall being offered advice and support to stop smoking by their GP (OR = 1.50, 95% C.I. = 1.05–2.13). However, there were no significant differences in use of stop-smoking aids during the past year. Conclusions: Smokers reporting depression/anxiety are more likely to be offered stop-smoking support by their GPs, but this does not appear to translate into stop-smoking aid use, despite high motivation to quit. Given higher nicotine dependence in this group, mental health specific support may need to be offered, and more needs to be done to make this offer of aid attractive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]