Health Care
Treating Tobacco Use & Dependence
Health Care Providers
Health care providers can play a vital role in helping their patients quit smoking. Research shows clinicians who treat tobacco addiction can double the smokers' chances of quitting. Moreover, all health care providers who address tobacco addiction in a formal setting can make a positive impact on smoking cessation. The Partnership realizes that time constraints and pressured schedules of health care providers are often the major factors that prevent this from happening. A lack of adequate resources available to health care providers may further compound the problem. To address this issue, we have brought together information from a variety of sources for your disposal. It is our endeavor to provide the latest information regarding tobacco cessation guidelines, programs and research outcomes available for the busy health care provider - all under one roof.
As stated in Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence, a clinical practice guideline released by the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) in June 2000, efficient cessation treatments for tobacco users are obtainable and should become a part of standard care giving.
Delivering treatment to tobacco users is cost-effective and is backed by research. Research also supports the fact that providing brief smoking cessation advice to hospitalized smokers is relatively inexpensive, cost-effective and should become a part of the standard of inpatient care. Further, smoking cessation interventions are less costly than other routine medical interventions such as a periodic mammography.
In order for smoking cessation interventions to impact a large number of tobacco users, it is essential that clinicians and health care delivery systems (including administrators, insurers and purchasers) institutionalize the practice of treating every tobacco user seen in a formal health care setting.
Copyright 2008, Hamilton County Tobacco-Free Partnership
Funded by Ohio Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation
and The Hamilton County General Health District