Community resources for smoking cessation
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Corresponding author Bess Marcus, PhD Department of Community Health and Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Brown University, 121 South Main Street, 8th Floor, Providence, RI 02903, USA. E-mail: [email protected] Current Cardiovascular Risk Reports 2008, 2:452–457 Current Medicine Group LLC ISSN 1932-9520 Copyright © 2008 by Current Medicine Group LLC
Cigarette smoking continues to be the single largest preventable cause of premature death in the United States. Unfortunately, smoking cessation rates in the United States have stalled despite the availability of effective smoking cessation treatments. Although communitybased smoking cessation services delivered in person, via the phone, and via the Internet have been shown to be effective channels of intervention, few smokers actually use the services for smoking cessation treatment. Recent studies suggest that pursuing innovative strategies may lead to increased reach and a potential increase in cessation rates. As such, researchers and clinicians can take advantage of these strategies and programs to help promote smoking cessation resources that can be used to effectively treat nicotine dependence and ultimately reduce cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Introduction The deleterious effects of smoking are well documented. In fact, a report from the Surgeon General states that smoking harms nearly every organ in the body and causes poorer overall health [1]. Smoking has been identified as a cause of lung and cervical cancer [1] and is directly related to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases [2]. Despite widespread knowledge of the health risks, 20.8% of US adults were current cigarette smokers in 2006 [3]. These rates were slightly down from the 2001 prevalence rates of 22% but still represent an overall stall in the improvement of cessation rates. Thus, tobacco use continues to be the leading preventable cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States, accounting for more than 438,000 premature deaths annually [4].
Most smokers recognize the many benefits of quitting smoking (ie, improved cardiovascular function, increased blood oxygen, decreased sinus congestion, reduced risk of coronary heart disease within 1 year of quitting) [5,6] and wish to quit. In fact, recent US data indicate that more than 70% of smokers want to quit and 40% try to quit smoking each year [7••]. Individuals often try to accomplish this feat on their own or discuss their desire to quit smoking with their health care providers. However, attempts made on their own are usually unsuccessful, and visits to health care providers can be infrequent and brief. Often, there are many pressing issues to discuss at such visits, and not enough time is allotted to adequately address a diffi cult topic like smoking cessation. Thus, health care providers often try to supplement and extend their advice by referring patients to available community resources for smoking cessation. These resources can vary widely but typically involve behavioral and/or pharmacologic components. Pharmaco
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