Oath-taking in Tobacco Control

Oath-taking came into existence through Hippocrates (2nd AD) and Charak (4th AD) thereafter to set a uniformly ethical conduct of physicians for maintaining the quality of healthcare. In tobacco control, it is administered usually at the end of an awareness activity. It is done with an expectation that the participants sensitized on the adverse effects of tobacco use will never ever be its users and shall lead a tobacco-free life. The moot questions are: Is it useful and is it effective? We have do not have any evidence to prove it yet. Through this communication we wish to rationalize the use of oath-taking as an effective strategy through evidence-based data thorough consideration of its applicability, implementation and outcome. Multi-center prospective studies may be the way forward to either recommend it as a norm or omit it altogether instead of its currently practiced belief-based emotive application.