Study shows people with disabilities smoke nearly 50 percent more

ATLANTA Smoking prevalence among people with disabilities is nearly 50 percent higher than among people without disabilities (29.9 percent vs. 19.8 percent), according to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study found that in 2004, smoking prevalence for people with disabilities is highest in Delaware (39.4 percent) and lowest in Puerto Rico (16.5 percent).

The study found that about 70 percent of people with disabilities who smoke and had visited a doctor in the last year had been advised to quit smoking. However, more than 40 percent of those advised to quit reported not being told about the types of tobacco-cessation treatment available.

The data was culled from the 2004 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System from the 50 states, the District of Columbia and the two U.S. territories for which data were available—Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The BRFSS is an ongoing, state-based, random-digit-dialed telephone survey of the civilian, non-institutionalized U.S. population aged 18 years or older.