Effectiveness of interventions to help people stop smoking: findings from the Cochrane Library

Abstract

Review GroupPeto estimates that current cigarette smoking will cause about 450 million deaths worldwide in the next 50 years.Reducing current smoking by 50% would avoid 20-30 million premature deaths in the first quarter of the century and about 150 million in the second quarter. 1 Preventing young people from starting smoking would cut the number of deaths related to tobacco, but not until after 2050.Quitting by current smokers is therefore the only way in which tobacco related mortality can be reduced in the medium term.There is evidence that some form of treatment aids an increasing number of successful attempts to quit. 2 This review aims to summarise evidence for the effectiveness of the available interventions.