By KHI NEWS SERVICE
KHI News Service

WICHITA — Mentally ill Kansas adults smoke at double the rate of the general population and have more trouble quitting, according to a report released today by the Kansas Health Foundation
“Studies show that most smokers want to quit. Smokers with mental illness make more quit attempts and have lower success in quitting compared to people without mental illness,” said Steve Coen, the health foundation’s chief executive officer.

According to the report, nearly half of Kansas adults who experienced serious mental illness in the past 30 days are smokers.

The foundation funded the report, which was done by RTI International.

Among other findings in the report:

In 2012, 10.2 percent of Kansas adults reported experiencing mental illness and 3.4 percent reported serious mental illness.
Mental illness is significantly associated with poor physical health, including health problems exacerbated by smoking.
Youth who reported mental illness were more than twice as likely to be smokers as youth without mental illness.
Foundation officials said they were launching a new effort through the foundation’s fellows leadership program to address tobacco use among the mentally ill.

“Through the years we’ve seen significant decreases in the percentage of Americans who smoke, but we’ve done very little to make strides in decreasing those rates among people with mental illness,” said Jeff Willett, vice president for programs at the foundation. “We see this collaborative effort being a call to action to both the mental health and tobacco control communities.”

The health foundation is the primary funder of the Kansas Health Institute, which is the parent organization of KHI News Service.