Preoperative clinics: an opportunity for smoking cessation care

Over four million people world wide die of smoking related disease each year. In Australia, tobacco smoking is the single largest cause of preventable death and disability. While hospitals have been identified as a potentially valuable setting in which to encourage patient cessation, research in Australia and overseas suggests that hospital staff do not routinely provide effective smoking cessation care to their patients. This thesis consists of a number of studies addressing this issue.