SA JOURNAL OF DIABETES & VASCULAR DISEASE
VOLUME 8 NUMBER 3 • SEPTEMBER 2011
117
HELPING PEOPLE TO QUIT SMOKING
Hands on
‘Smoking kills’. This is just one of the health warnings
on cigarette packets these days, although there are
others, telling the buyer that ‘smoking can cause a
slow and painful death’, ‘clogs arteries causing heart
attacks and strokes’, ‘reduces sperm count’ and
‘harms your unborn baby’.
Nobody can be left in any doubt as to the harm-
ful effects of smoking in the face of the barrage of
warnings around today. As well as respiratory and
cardiovascular diseases, other conditions associated
with smoking include eye conditions such as macular
degeneration and cataracts, gastric problems such
as peptic ulcers, and reproductive problems including
sub-fertility, increased risk of spontaneous abortion
and low birthweight babies.
In 1948, around 65% of the population were ciga-
rette smokers. This figure dropped to 55% in 1970
and has continued to fall, so that only about one in five
adults now smokes, according to latest figures. The
level is higher in manual workers, offering one expla-
nation for the link between deprivation and premature
mortality. Nonetheless, around three out of four smok-
ers are keen to quit at any given time and the surgery is
Bev Bostock-Cox
Nurse Practitioner, Walsgrave Health
Centre, Coventry
Clinical Lecturer, Education for Health,
Warwick
often the first point of contact when they decide to take
the first step on the road to becoming an ex-smoker. So
what can we do to help people to quit?
HELPING PEOPLE TO QUIT
It is important to include smoking cessation advice at
any given opportunity, not just when a patient asks for
it. Advice should be offered in a non-judgemental way,
so that even if the person is not ready to quit now they
will realise that they can approach you when the time
is right.
Guidelines recommend giving brief advice about
how to quit and the services that are available to po-
tential quitters, such as the NHS Stop Smoking serv-
ice, including local smoking cessation groups. Offering
brief advice has been shown to be effective in helping
smokers to quit. Smokers are four times more likely
to quit if they are given ongoing support, combined
with pharmacological interventions such as nicotine
replacement therapy (NRT).
Data on smoking habits and the giving of advice on
quitting should also be recorded for all patients aged 16
and over for the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF).
H
elping people who smoke to quit is one of the most important steps we can take in reduc-
ing their risk of cardiovascular disease, in addition to reducing the other harms caused by
smoking.
Key points: helping people
to quit smoking
Include smoking cessation
•
advice at every opportunity, not
just when asked
Smokers are four times more
•
likely to quit when given
ongoing support combined with
pharmacological interventions
Match the pharmacological
•
intervention to the patient’s
needs, bearing in mind previous
attempts to quit and cost
effectiveness
NRT is available in several
•
different forms and may also be
prescribed in ‘patch plus top-up’
form where indicated
Mood changes are a side
•
effect of stopping smoking.
Studies with varenicline show
no increase in risk of suicidal
behaviour
S Afr J Diabetes Vasc Dis
2011:
8:
117– 120
From: the
British Journal of
Primary Care Nursing
