Supportive follow-up for cigarette smokers in a family practice: issues of method, analysis and state of the art.

Kozlowski and Page have criticized a study published in 1982 in CMAJ on the effects of supportive follow-up on the rate at which patients quit smoking cigarettes. We agree with some of their general sentiments about the need for establishing a consensus on the evaluation of smoking cessation programs. More specifically, we defend the particular analysis originally used, given the state of knowledge and constraints on the study. We examine their main objections: the definition of successful cessation, the design of the study, the exclusion of patients lost to follow-up, the methods of statistical analysis used and the strength of more recent evidence on the usefulness of follow-up visits. We believe that the role of supportive follow-up deserves further evaluation.