HIV and Smoking: An Urgent Public Health Discussion
Featuring:
[Moderator] Jessica Shortall, Safer From Harm Coalition and Strategic Partnerships Lead, Healthier Communities, R Street Institute
Lauren Pacek, PhD, Assistant Professor, Rutgers Health Institute for Nicotine and Tobacco Studies, Department of Medicine, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Patricia Cioe, PhD, Professor and Associate Dean of Research and Scholarship, University of Rhode Island College of Nursing
Americans living with HIV now lose more years of life to smoking than to HIV itself. While cigarette smoking among U.S. adults has fallen below 10 percent for the first time, people with HIV still smoke at up to four times that rate. Many people with HIV want to quit smoking; however, quit ratios are lower than in the general population, and people with HIV have worse cessation outcomes when using traditional methods like counseling and medication.
These sobering statistics are driven in part by a public health success story: Advances in antiretroviral therapy for HIV can transform the virus from a terminal illness into a long-term, manageable chronic disease. But it’s also a story of ongoing disparities in smoking and smoking cessation and a call to action for practitioners and organizations that support people living with HIV.
Join us for a virtual discussion featuring researchers with deep experience in caring for and understanding the unique dynamics of people living with HIV who smoke.
Topics will include:
Why people with HIV face unique or exacerbated barriers to smoking cessation
A range of approaches to cessation and harm reduction
The role of healthcare providers in smoking cessation and other positive changes for people with HIV
Food and Drug Administration-approved medications for smoking cessation and their success rates for people with HIV
Additional approaches and the continuum of risk
Why healthcare providers and organizations that support people with HIV are sometimes resistant to newer harm reduction approaches, including balancing benefits for adults vs. risk to adolescents