Is Tobacco Use A Disease?

Main Category: Smoking / Quit Smoking
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 21 Oct 2008 - 2:00 PDT

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New approaches to reducing smoking prevalence and incidence are needed, such as involving sectors outside of health care, as the current approaches do not work for everyone, writes Dr. Katherine Frohlich from University of Montreal http://www.cmaj.ca/press/pg880.pdf.

Currently, there are two approaches to reducing smoking rates: a disease-centred approach and a population-based approach. The disease-centred approach focuses on the individual with smoking cessation therapies while the population-based model focuses on reduction at the population level by changing social norms.

Based on a critique of the above, the author suggests new approaches to address the needs of the 19% of people who have not stopped smoking. "We need to better understand why these vulnerable populations, comprised largely but not exclusively of homeless people, Aboriginal people, individuals of lower socio-economic status, adolescents and people with mental illness, have been unable to respond to population-based interventions."

New approaches that address the specific needs of vulnerable populations should be explored.

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Source: Kim Barnhardt
Canadian Medical Association Journal

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