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BARRIERS TO SMOKING CESSATION: RESULTS OF A SURVEY AMONG FAMILY PRACTICE PATIENTS |
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| Introduction Tobacco smoking is spreading in epidemic proportions all over the world (1), being responsible for fifty percent of all avoidable deaths (2). It reduces the life expectancy among smokers, increases overall medical costs and contributes to the loss of productivity during the life span (1). Smoking has been linked with various neurological, cardiovascular, and pulmonary diseases among the smokers as well as non-smokers (1). Passive smoking among children is a significant risk factor for asthma1. Cigarette smoke contains several carcinogens that can lead to lung cancer (1). The benefits of smoking cessation are unquestionable (3), both in terms of benefit to the health of individuals who stops smoking and reduced health care costs to the health care delivery system. The efforts aimed at promoting smoking cessation programs have so far been far from successful (4). That is the reason why researchers continue to look at different ways to promote smoking cessation (5,6). The focus of improving smoking cessation rates has been on advertising (5) to get smokers into the cessation program, improving counseling skills of physicians (6), and nicotine replacement to curb withdrawal symptoms (7). These interventional strategies are based on barriers to smoking cessation programs identified during earlier studies. |
Several studies have even looked at barriers
to smoking cessation in selected groups such as alcoholics (8) and
pregnant women (9). There is now evidence to suggest that smoking
cessation program must look at the cultural context that continues
to propagate smoking (10). Unless the underlying factors that continue
to support smoking are identified and corrected, the success of any
smoking cessation program is questionable.
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