Cut smoking among U.K.’s mentally ill for good of the economy: researchers urge

More must be done in the U.K. to help people with mental health issues stop tobacco smoking because a new study suggests that such people cost the economy more than £2 billion a year, according to a Press Association story.

The study, published in the journal Tobacco Control, was said to have estimated the cost to the economy based on the World Health Association’s “economics tobacco tool kit.”

Researchers found that during 2009–2010, the estimated cost to the U.K. of smoking among people with mental health issues was £719 million for treating diseases caused by smoking, £823 million for work-related absenteeism and £797 million associated with productivity loss through premature mortality—a total cost of £2.34 billion.

“Smoking in people with mental disorders in the U.K. imposes significant economic costs,” the researchers from the Universities of York and Nottingham were quoted as saying.

“The development and implementation of smoking cessation interventions in this group should therefore be a high economic and clinical priority.”

The incidence of smoking among mentally ill people is 50 percent higher than is the incidence of smoking in the general population, the study authors noted.