Quitting tobacco
Problem
Quitting tobacco is not easy as tobacco dependence is a cluster of behavioural, cognitive and physiological phenomena. Very few tobacco users can successfully quit the habit in their first attempt.
Social norms do not support tobacco users to quit in some high-burden countries. For example, the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) shows that:
- In China: only 23.2% of Chinese adults believe smoking causes serious illnesses. Only 24.6% believe exposure to tobacco smoke causes heart disease and lung cancer in adults and lung illnesses in children. Only 16.1% of current adult smokers plan to or are thinking about quitting in the next 12 months.
- In India, about 26% of current adult smokers plan to or are thinking about quitting in the next 12 months.
Evidence-based support to quit tobacco use (tobacco dependence treatment) includes methods from simple medical advice to pharmacotherapy, along with quit lines and counselling. However, tobacco users have low levels of awareness of the evidence about these tobacco dependence treatment interventions.
Solution
Quitting tobacco is the best thing that tobacco users can do to protect the health of themselves and others. Tobacco users need to absorb two beliefs to make themselves ready to quit. They are:
- Quitting is important to me and I want to be a non-tobacco user.
- I have a chance of quitting successfully.
Those who are not ready to quit should remember the following facts:
- The tobacco body
- Fact sheet about health benefits of quitting
- Summary of effectiveness data for smoking cessation interventions
- A guide for tobacco users to quit
- A guide for tuberculosis patients to quit smoking
What kind of support is available
Evidence-based tobacco dependence treatment methods (brief advice from health professionals, toll-free quit line services, nicotine replacement therapy, etc) are available in different countries. For country data on the availability of brief advice, quit lines and pharmacotherapy, see the latest WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic.
Resources
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Developing and improving national toll-free tobacco quit line services
A World Health Organizaton manual -
MPOWER brochure: offer help to quit tobacco use
pdf, 1.15Mb - WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic, 2013
- Policy recommendations for smoking cessation and treatment of tobacco dependence
- WHO The Union monograph on TB and Tobacco Control
- Training for tobacco quit line counsellors: telephone counselling
- A guide for tobacco users to quit
- A guide for tuberculosis patients to quit smoking
- Toolkit for delivering the 5A’s and 5R’s brief tobacco interventions in primary care
- Toolkit for delivering the 5A’s and 5R’s brief tobacco interventions to TB patients in primary care
- Strengthening health systems for treating tobacco dependence in primary care