Lok Yee Ling, Tan Grace Ping Ping, Subramaniam Mythily, van der Eijk Yvette
Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
Institute of Mental Health, Singapore, Singapore.
PLoS One. 2025 May 7;20(5):e0322786. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0322786. eCollection 2025.
Although quitting smoking benefits mental health, people with mental health conditions tend to have higher smoking rates and more severe tobacco use disorders. Integration of smoking cessation into mental healthcare, or vice versa, could help to meet the needs of this population. While Singapore offers specialist smoking cessation and mental health services, it is unclear how these services address the needs of people with comorbid tobacco use and mental health issues. This study aimed to explore the integration of smoking cessation and mental health services in Singapore from the perspective of healthcare professionals.
We conducted one-on-one semi-structured interviews with 21 Singaporean health professionals with expertise in mental health (n = 5), smoking cessation (n = 5), primary healthcare (n = 3), specialist respiratory or emergency care (n = 3) or health systems and policy (n = 5). We recruited participants from the authors' professional networks and subsequently via snowballing. We used inductive coding methods to identify themes that emerged from the data.
Health professionals were divided on whether smoking and mental health are sufficiently interconnected to justify more integrated or tailored services. Smoking cessation and mental health were generally approached in a siloed manner, reflecting systemic barriers to integration as well as ranging levels of awareness among health professionals on the association between smoking and mental health. While some participants welcomed the integration of smoking cessation and mental health services as a more convenient, effective and equitable way to address the needs of this population, others deemed it unnecessary and viewed smoking as a lifestyle habit, distinct from other mental health issues.
There is a need to educate health professionals on smoking as a mental health issue and to consider more tailored programmes designed to address smoking cessation and mental health needs simultaneously.
尽管戒烟有益于心理健康，但患有心理健康问题的人群往往吸烟率更高，且烟草使用障碍更为严重。将戒烟服务纳入精神卫生保健，或者反之，可能有助于满足这一人群的需求。虽然新加坡提供专业的戒烟和心理健康服务，但尚不清楚这些服务如何满足同时存在烟草使用和心理健康问题的人群的需求。本研究旨在从医疗保健专业人员的角度探讨新加坡戒烟和心理健康服务的整合情况。
我们对21名新加坡卫生专业人员进行了一对一的半结构化访谈，这些专业人员分别在心理健康（n = 5）、戒烟（n = 5）、初级医疗保健（n = 3）、专科呼吸或急诊护理（n = 3）或卫生系统与政策（n = 5）领域具有专业知识。我们从作者的专业网络中招募参与者，随后通过滚雪球的方式进行招募。我们使用归纳编码方法来识别数据中出现的主题。
卫生专业人员对于吸烟与心理健康之间的关联是否足以证明需要更多整合或定制服务存在分歧。戒烟和心理健康服务通常是分开提供的，这反映了整合方面的系统性障碍，以及卫生专业人员对吸烟与心理健康之间关联的认识程度参差不齐。虽然一些参与者欢迎将戒烟和心理健康服务整合起来，认为这是满足这一人群需求的更便捷、有效和公平的方式，但另一些人则认为没有必要，并将吸烟视为一种生活方式习惯，与其他心理健康问题不同。
有必要对卫生专业人员进行关于吸烟是心理健康问题的教育，并考虑制定更具针对性的方案，以同时满足戒烟和心理健康需求。
