Page 133 - Petelin, Ana. 2024. Ed. Zdravje delovno aktivnih in starejših odraslih | Health of the Working-Age and Older Adults. Zbornik prispevkov z recenzijo | Proceedings. Koper: University of Primorska Press

er person to deal with their loneliness. It is good practice to direct older smok-
ers to all available forms of help in their local environment. The anonymity of
Quitline does not allow for monitoring the success of the interventions used,
but similar counselling can be carried out by all professionals working with
older adults. Due to the frequent contact of older adults with the healthcare
system these are mostly health workers. They should identify older smokers,
motivate them to quit and direct them to various assistance programs. When it
is clear that health problems of older adults can be attributed to smoking, it is
necessary to address it at every visit. Smokers who have never thought of quit-
ting are extremely rare, but even their attitudes can be changed with compel-
ling arguments.
When considering financial or social hardship, it makes sense to strength-
en co-operation between health and social care systems and non-governmen-
tal organisations. Reducing living costs by quitting smoking can greatly im-
prove quality of life. Financial problems increase stress which in turn reduces 133
the motivation to quit (Siahpush et al., 2003).
The key to reducing the prevalence of older smokers is a strong and effec-
tive interdisciplinary co-operation of all who work with this population, which
should be well co-ordinated at all levels. All participants should have a good
knowledge of the availability of quitting interventions in Slovenia and specific
needs of the individual older smoker.

Conclusions
Older smokers have different needs than other age groups. Everyone who works smoking habits of older adults in slovenia – analysis of quitline calls
with older smokers should be able to identify these needs and provide appro-
priate help to enable abstinence as soon as possible. Quitline should always be
one of the options offered to an older person who still smokes.

References
CAROSELLA, A.M., OSSIP-KLEIN, D.J., WATT, CAPODGORSKI, C., 2002.
Smoking history, knowledge, and attitudes among older residents of a
long-term care facility. Nicotine & tobacco research, vol. 4, no. 2, pp.161-
169.
CATALDO, J. K., PETERSEN, A. B., HUNTER, M., WANG, J., SHEON, N.,
2015. E-cigarette marketing and older smokers: road to renormalization.
American journal of health behavior, vol. 39, no. 3, pp. 361-371.
JAMAL, A., PHILLIPS, E., GENTZKE, A. S., HOMA, D. M., BABB, S. D.,
KING, B. A.and NEFF, L. J., 2018. Current cigarette smoking among
adults—United States, 2016. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, vol.
67, no. 2, 53.
JORDAN, H., HIDAJAT, M., PAYNE, N., ADAMS, J., WHITE, M.,
BEN-SHLOMO, Y,. 2017. What are older smokers’ attitudes to quit-
ting and how are they managed in primary care? An analysis of the