The potential of smoking cessation programmes and a smoking ban in public places: comparing gain in life ex-pectancy and cost effectiveness.
BACKGROUND: Interventions aimed at reducing the number of smokers are generally believed to be cost effective. However as the cost of the interventions should be paid up front whereas the gains in life years only appear in the future--the budgetary consequences might be a barrier to implementing such interventions. AIMS: The aim of the present paper was to assess the long-term cost effectiveness
