To increase the success rate of quitting smoking, several tools are available, such as professional counseling, online tools, and nicotine replacement therapy. However, it is not known to what extent practitioners point out these aids to smokers, which have also been reimbursed by health insurers since 2020. Therefore, researchers have investigated whether hearing from a practitioner about smoking cessation aids is related to the use of these substances when trying to quit (Eur J Public Health. 2022;32:747-52).
They used data from 5928 smokers ≥ 18 years old from the Lifestyle Monitors of 2016, 2018 and 2020. A third had made a serious attempt to quit in the previous year. About two-thirds of them had not used any aids.
Of the 5,508 smokers who consulted at least one healthcare professional – mainly dentists and general practitioners – in the previous year, almost a third said they had been advised to quit smoking. Less than 40% of them were referred to aids. If a therapist had told about the aids, smokers used them more often when they tried to quit (adjusted odds ratio: 2.96; 95% CI: 2.16-4.06). This association was not stronger if several practitioners had pointed it out to them within that year.
According to the researchers, the fact that practitioners do not often point to aids is partly because many guidelines recommend that this only be done with people who are motivated to stop. This applies, for example, to the NHG standard ‘Stop smoking’. In contrast, according to the ‘Very Brief Advice’ method, a smoker is always advised to stop aids.