The economic and social costs of lung cancer and the economics of smoking prevention.
Lung cancer is a major cause of the premature loss of life and the costs to society of lung cancer are significant. Since smoking is the major cause of lung cancer, the main prevention strategy is to reduce smoking. Interventions to reduce smoking have been shown to be cost effective, from population measures such as tax and advertising restrictions through to individual or group treatments. Different groups of the population may well benefit from different interventions and there could be synergistic effects from a comprehensive programme. Treatment for smokers is an important part of any programme and especially important to prevent longer term smokers contracting lung cancer. However, most health care systems have not been successful in ensuring that smoking cessation interventions have a high priority. It should be an urgent task to ensure that the small additional resources for this work are fully reimbursed and incentives introduced to reap both major health gains and future reductions in health costs.
Godfrey
C
C
Department of Health Sciences and Clinical Evaluation, and Centre for Health Economics, University of York, YO10 5DD, UK. cg2@york.ac.uk
D017281:Cost of Illness; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000191:economics*; D012907:Smoking / Q000191:economics*; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000191:economics*; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors