A stage paradigm for integrating clinical and public health approaches to smoking cessation.

Clinical interventions for the addictions typically generate the highest abstinence rates but the lowest participation rates. Public health interventions reach the largest percentage of populations but have the lowest efficacy. Applying a stage paradigm to smoking cessation can integrate the clinical and public health approach and generate unprecedented impacts. Theoretical, empirical, and practical examples are provided for enhancing five issues in intervention: recruitment, retention, progress, process and outcomes.