Smokers need doctors' help

Taking a doctor's advice can more than double the success rate of smokers trying to quit, experts said at a conference yesterday. Only 3 percent of long-term smokers can stop for one year solely using their willpower, they said.

Tobacco addiction is a chronic disease that should be treated by doctors, experts said. However, most smokers and non-smokers didn't look at the addiction in this way.

The conference was held to discuss methods to help patients who wanted to quit smoking, and to announce the introduction of new anti-smoking drugs.

"There are 350 million smokers in China and at least 1 million people die of smoking-related diseases every year," said Dr Bai Chunxue from Zhongshan Hospital. "The health facility should do more to control the situation through education and effective intervention."

He said Shanghai is the first city in the nation to encourage hospitals to set up clinics to help people give up smoking.

Since April, 58 hospitals have established anti-smoking clinics, offering patients medication and advice on how to quit, plus care for diseases caused by smoking.

Even one conversation with a doctor suggesting a patient quits can encourage another 2 percent of smokers to kick the habit, experts said.

"For the 350 million Chinese smokers, 2 percent means 7 million people," said Xiao Dan from the Beijing Institute of Respiratory Medicine. "Medical staff should be non-smoking role models and teach smokers the harm it causes."

However, a survey of large hospitals in six cities recently found more than 40 percent of doctors are smokers, she said.

The tobacco control office under China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention has started a non-smoking hospital project across the nation and will launch a nation-based further education course for doctors about the dangers of smoking and effective measures in helping patients to quit.

A comprehensive psychological, behavioral and pharmaceutical intervention can help control the nicotine withdrawal symptoms experienced by smokers and prevent people from starting smoking again, experts said.

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