An audit of a smoking cessation programme for people with an intellectual disability resident in a forensic unit

This paper briefly reviews the literature on smoking and smoking cessation programmes for people with intellectual disability, and describes the baseline audit of such a programme for patients resident in a forensic service. The audit describes the prevalence of smoking, its significant associations and the effect of an intervention programme. In total, 79 patients participated in the audit, 48 of whom were smokers on admission (60.8%). Roughly a third of smokers gave up during their hospital stay (N = 15). Those who did not give up significantly reduced the number of cigarettes they smoked per day. Female smokers appeared less likely to give up than men. Length of stay and treatment with anti‐psychotic medication were not significantly linked to smoking behaviour. A simple smoking cessation programme with an emphasis on health education and nicotine replacement therapies appeared to be effective in cutting down smoking rates and tobacco consumption in this population. One should be cautious about generalising the conclusions to all forensic hospital services for people with intellectual disability, as the audit was limited by the lack of a control group and conducted in a single service.