Background: Health centres, which constitute the base of the primary health care system, need to shift the focus from providing care only, to prevention, promotion and health education. This can be achieved by implementing health promotion programm

Background: Smoking is an example of unhealthy chosen behaviour and the number one preventable cause of morbidity and mortality. For this reason it is important to compare health-related quality of life of smokers and non-smokers. Aim: Subjective assessment of the quality of life of smokers and non-smokers. Method: The 4-week study was conducted in June and July 2009 and involved smokers and non-smokers, residents of the Municipality of Athens. A total of 317 questionnaires were completed by participants of whom 212 were smokers and 105 non-smokers. The questionnaire used was the “SF-36 Health Survey” instrument that measures the quality of life. The sampling method was the stratified random sampling and the testing reliability was tested using the Cronbach’s alpha. Results: From the data analysis of the SF-36 scale, was found that smokers rated their “physical health” lower (RP=69.92) compared to non-smokers (RP=78.09). Τhe difference was statistically significant. In contrast, no difference was reported in the “social functioning” (smokers SF = 55.6 smokers and non smokers SF=55, p=0.05). Conclusions: Although the study shows that smokers assessed subjectively that smoking adversely affects their physical health, they do not appear to evaluate their social functioning differently from that of the non-smokers. This finding is considered to be an important element in the trend for smoking to be considered acceptable in the Greek society, as far as links between the quality of life and the ways of dealing with the habit of smoking are concerned.