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About 40% Of U.S. Smokers Struggle With Disability

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm. Last updated on May 30, 2025.

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, May 30, 2025 — About 2 of 5 smokers in the U.S. suffer from some form of disability, a new study says.

And in 1 of 7, their disability is so severe it interferes with their daily lives, researchers report.

“The prevalence of disability among adults in the USA who currently smoke cigarettes was more than two times higher when compared with those who have never smoked,” concluded the research team led by Jeanette Novakovich, a writer-editor at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The most common disabilities among smokers were mobility and problems with thinking or memory, researchers reported May 29 in the journal Tobacco Control.

For the study, researchers analyzed data gathered between 2019 and 2023 by the National Health Interview Survey, an in-person household survey conducted by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.

The survey asks people whether they are current or former smokers, and also asks a series of questions designed to assess their disability.

The research team compared reported disability among around 17,600 current smokers to 37,500 former smokers and just under 91,000 people who never smoked.

Results showed that about 40% of the nation’s 25 million current smokers have “some difficulty,” “a lot of difficulty,” or “cannot do at all” when it comes to:

• Mobility, defined as difficulty walking or climbing up steps.

• Cognitive difficulty, or difficulty remembering or concentrating.

• Vision, or difficulty seeing even when wearing glasses.

• Hearing, or difficulty hearing even if using a hearing aid.

• Communication, or trouble understanding or being understood by others.

• Self-care, or being able to wash all over or dress oneself.

Further, 14% of current smokers said they have “a lot of difficulty” or “cannot do at all” for at least one of these types of disability — double the 7% of never-smokers who reported that level of disability.

Current smokers also had doubled rates of the most common disabilities compared to non-smokers — mobility (8% versus 4%) and cognitive issues (4.5% versus 2%).

The study could not say whether smoking contributes to these disabilities, or if disabled people turn to smoking as a means of coping, researchers noted.

But these folks might have trouble kicking the habit because quit-smoking programs aren’t taking their disabilities into account, the researchers said.

“Interventions providing tobacco cessation services might not meet the needs of persons with a disability and may need to be modified to better reach people with specific disabilities,” the team wrote.

“For example, one study found that people with cognitive and sensory disabilities may not be reached as effectively using smoking cessation programs designed for people without disabilities,” the paper says.

Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Posted May 2025

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