Development and problems of smoking cessation clinics in China mainland

Abstract

Background: Tobacco control is one of the biggest public health challenges globally and in China mainland. Promoting clinical smoking cessation service is an important component of comprehensive state tobacco control measures to reduce tobacco use. Smoking cessation clinics have been established for 19 years in China mainland and the performance of smoking clinics needs to be evaluated for future tobacco control strategy.

Methods: A review of studies, documents and policies, in English or Chinese, on smoking cessation clinics in mainland China was conducted. PubMed, CNKI, Wanfang Database, Google Scholar and Google were searched for all relevant articles and documents.

Findings: A number of smoking cessation clinics were set up across mainland China (about 200 during the past 20 years), yet most of them were inactive or short lived. A variety of techniques were used in smoking cessation service but no firm conclusion can be drawn on the effectiveness of smoking cessation interventions as lack of reports with quantitative data or due to methodological problems. The primary problems of smoking cessation clinics are lack of acceptance by the smoking population, insufficient financial support and motivation of service providers.

Conclusion: Smoking cessation clinics in China mainland failed to reduce tobacco use at population level. The evidence of the effects on public health is insufficient because of the low prevalence of quitting attempts and low professional assistance on use.