Smoking cessation health benefits

Table 5.1. Adverse medical effects of tobacco smoking, and health benefits of smoking cessation.

Surgeon General (1990). The Health Benefits of Smoking Cessation. US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC. 

It is now clear that treatment with smoking cessation medications is an efficacious and cost-effective path to disease control and prevention of premature mortality. There is a strong medical and public health need for pharmacotherapies to aid smokers who wish to quit smoking, but who are unable to do so without such assistance (World Health Organization 2003 World Bank 1999 Fiore et al. 2000 Royal College of Physicians of London 2000). It is equally clear, however, that many people find currently available treatments ineffective or unacceptable. Thus, the benefits and limitations of presently available treatments provide a powerful impetus for further treatment development. 

Patients also benefit tremendously from the Rx-to-OTC switches. When a product that was formerly in prescription only status is classified as OTC, it allows patients to self-treat and gain more control over their health.This is especially true in cases where medical advice was once required, e.g., smoking cessation. The patient can now save time and money that was previously spent on visiting a physician. It has been shown that patients saved approximately 150 million a year since hydrocortisone P/o was switched to OTC status. ... 

Department of Health and Human Services, Health Benefits of Smoking Cessation a Report of the Surgeon General, Centers for Disease Control, Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, Rockville, MD, 1992. 

Selected simple, cost-effective measures, the implementation of which should decrease the incidence of NP in susceptible persons, are summarized in Table 1 (1,2,74,75). It is recommended that pneumococcal and influenza vaccinations be offered to all persons 65 years of age or older or those with chronic underlying disease. Optimizing health care maintenance strategies may decrease the need for hospital admission. Smoking cessation should be encouraged in all patients and particularly in those in whom elective surgery is planned. Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease may benefit from incentive spirometry, positive end-expiratory pressure, or continuous positive airway pressure by face mask (1,2,74,75). 

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