Integrating comprehensive tobacco treatment into the evolving US health care system: it's time to act: comment on 'A randomized trial of Internet and telephone treatment for smoking cessation'.

摘要

Tobacco use remains the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, contributing to unsustainable health care costs and unacceptable so-cioeconomic disparities in disease burden. Clearly, treating tobacco use and dependence should be a high priority for physicians and for all those who organize, provide, and pay for health care. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Despite its recognition as a chronic disease, the availability of therapies diat are among the most cost-effective in health care, and evidence-based clinical guidelines, tobacco dependence has not been treated with the respect and attention it deserves by the US health care system.