Prevalence of tobacco use in addiction treatment is three times that in the general population

Background: Prevalence of tobacco use is high among persons seeking treatment for drug and alcohol abuse, but this information is based on individual samples where smoking rates have ranged from 47% to 94%. Few large datasets are available to estimate smoking prevalence in the addiction treatment population. This paper analyzes admissions data to assess smoking prevalence in a statewide addiction treatment population. Methods: Data from the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) admission records from 2006 to 2012 were analyzed. Non-treatment programs (e.g., crisis, prevention, education), adolescent programs, programs located in jail or prison where smoking is often banned, and multiple admissions for the same person in one year were excluded. Results: Records for approximately 100,000 unique adult admissions in each of the 6 years were analyzed for this study. Prevalence of tobacco use, by year, ranged from 69 to 71%. These were somewhat lower than similar estimates from national (NSDUH) data, which ranged from 70 to 75%, however much higher than the NYS prevalence that ranged from 15-19%. Future analyses will assess factors associated with tobacco use, including demographics, primary drug of abuse, presence of co-existing psychiatric diagnosis, and criminal justice involvement. Conclusions: Among adults entering the NY statewide addiction treatment system, prevalence of tobacco use is three times that of the general population, a disparity also seen in national (NSDUH) data. Tobacco control, addiction treatment, and public health efforts do not address, or do not effectively address tobacco use in this population.