Psychology, public health, and cigarette smoking

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Abstract
Cigarette smoking is the single most lethal risk to health in Australia: it contributes significantly to premature mortality and morbidity, particularly from cardiovascular disease and cancer. Smoking appears to be initiated and maintained by a range of biological, psychological and social influences, and is a behaviour pattern which can be very resistant to change. Psychologists have contributed to the development of more effective face‐to‐face programs for smoking cessation. However, there needs to be a much stronger focus by our discipline on public‐health aspects of smoking: understanding the social factors which influence smoking prevalence; discouraging the adoption of the smoking habit; and developing more effective and acceptable methods for assisting large numbers of smokers to stop. The large‐scale reduction of smoking prevalence should he a high priority for psychologists concerned with health promotion and chronic disease prevention.