Is there a future for smoking cessation programs?

Given the marginal success rates of formal smoking cessation clinics and the small number of smokers who have participated in such clinics, it must be concluded that their impact on the public health problem of smoking has been negligible. This paper speculates about changes that would improve their performance and suggests the following: (1) clinics should be offered at existing organizational units, e.g., workplaces, where all the smokers can be readily informed about the program and also provide mutual support for nonsmoking; (2) an immediate inducement (money) should be made available to smokers for successful participation in the clinic; and (3) a pervasive social support system should be employed to help the smoker with the difficult problem of maintaining abstinence after it has been achieved. A program model is proposed that meets those criteria. Should the model prove effective, it might well apply to other health risk factors such as obesity, hypertension, and serum cholesterol level, which, like smoking, are essentially behavior problems.