Effectiveness of Smoking Cessation Education

Smoking is an important psychosocial problem that concerns society. It is reported that 1.3 billion people use tobacco products in the world and approximately 6 million people lose their lives due to smoking every year. Despite the high mortality rate, smoking addiction is shown as one of the biggest preventable diseases and causes of death. Individuals with mental health problems have a much higher smoking rate than the general population. Studies show that people with severe mental disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression have a smoking rate three to four times higher than the general population. It has been reported that this high smoking rate is associated with more morbidity, mortality and increased healthcare costs in individuals with severe mental disorders. It is reported that nurses, who spend the most time with patients and constitute the largest group of healthcare personnel, have an effective role in smoking cessation initiatives. The importance of nurses in tobacco control is emphasized in the publication titled "Nurses for a Tobacco-Free Life" by the International Council of Nursing (ICN). Although both national and international literature demonstrates that smoking is a serious problem in individuals with severe mental illness through descriptive research results, it is seen that smoking cessation intervention studies are quite limited. Randomized controlled intervention studies examining the effectiveness of smoking cessation interventions applied by nurses to individuals with severe mental illnesses could not be found in the literature. This study will be conducted to examine the effectiveness of smoking cessation education in patients registered in a community mental health center. In light of this information, this study was planned as a randomized controlled study to examine the effectiveness of smoking cessation education in patients registered in a community mental health center. The data obtained from this study will reveal the effectiveness of smoking cessation education in individuals with severe mental illnesses and contribute to filling the gap in the literature in this area. In addition, a method for using smoking cessation education in individuals with severe mental illnesses will be presented with a high level of evidence study.