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Background/aim: Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the world. There is growing evidence of the need for community-based programs on smoking cessation. The main purpose of this study is to establish the rate of smoking cessation and restarting in 1 year at the Balçova Smoking Cessation Center. Materials and methods: This is a prospective study with a study group of 359 individuals who quit smoking at the Balçova Smoking Cessation Center for at least 4 weeks between October 2009 and April 2010. The outcomes of the study were 1-year cessation rate and relapse rate. Individuals who reported restarting and/or had CO measurements above 6 ppm were accepted as quitters who had relapsed. Results: The 1-year rate of smoking cessation was 30.1% for the study group. Of the subjects who quit smoking, 50.1% started smoking again during the 1-year follow-up. Relapse rate was also higher in nicotine addicts. Pharmacological treatment was associated with increased success rates in smoking cessation. Conclusion: Nicotine dependency was shown to be associated with lower rates of smoking cessation and higher rates of relapse. Therefore, it is important to begin smoking cessation attempts before individuals become serious addicts.

Mindless eating, overnutrition and physical inactivity, which have recently been on the increase, lead to hormonal and metabolic disorders; therefore, the disease is called metabolic syndrome (MetS). It has been known for a long time that if obesity, gout and stroke coexist, this is caused by mindless eating and overnutrition (1–3). The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that insulin resistance should have at least two concomitant criteria of reduced high density lipoprotein (HDL), high triglycerides (TG), high blood pressure and obesity for the diagnosis of MetS. This definition referred to a major group of patients with a high risk, and made the diagnosis difficult because insulin resistance was a prerequisite (3–5). However, in the report of American National Cholesterol Education Program - Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP ATP III), a new definition of the diagnosis of MetS was made, thus making the diagnosis of MetS easier. According to this definition, MetS can be diagnosed in individuals with at least three of the following five parameters: abdominal obesity, glucose intolerance or type 2 diabetes, reduced HDL, high TG and high blood pressure (HT) (6). Today, there is another common definition of MetS by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF). Considering this definition, abdominal obesity should have at least two concomitant criteria of disglycemia, reduced HDL, high triglycerides, and high blood pressure for the diagnosis of MetS (7). Since the second half of the 20th century, there has been an increase in the prevalence of obesity due to physical inactivity and irregular diet, depending on the increase in the urban population, rapid and uncontrolled industrialization, the increasing number of employees in offices and increases in income levels. The studies showed that MetS led to an increase twice as much in CVD and four times as much in diabetes mellitus prevalence (8–11). The prevalence of MetS was almost 30% in the developed western countries with a rate of 50% in people aged 50 and over. The Turkish Adult Risk Factor (TARF) study reported that the prevalence of MetS in adults aged 30 and over was 27.0% in men and 45.2% in women according to the criteria of NCEP. This study also showed that while the prevalence of MetS in our country was 24.4% in 1990, this rate increased to 36.2% by 2000 (12). The aim of this study was to determine and discuss the prevalence of MetS and affecting factors among individuals at the age of 30 and over in Balcova District of Izmir province according to NCEP-ATP III and IDF criteria.