This report summarises the evidence on the delivery of effective smoking cessation. It focuses on the ABC approach to smoking cessation which brings with it a more “assertive” manner in which clinicians can work.
This guidance for health professionals provides different elements and key points of leverage that can be used to better implement and support smoking cessation in primary care.
Purpose
The purpose of this document is to provide evidence-based guidance for doctors, nurses, other health professionals and healthcare organisations on the different elements and key points of leverage that can be used to better implement and support smoking cessation activities in primary care settings – The ABC approach. This evidence-based document summarises current research findingsa in relation to the question “What interventions have been successfully implemented in primary care to increase (a) the assessment of smoking status (b) the provision of brief advice and (c) the offer of effective smoking cessation treatment (including counselling, pharmacotherapy, or referral for smoking cessation treatment), compared to standard care”?
The overall aim of the document is to promote ‘more quit attempts, supported with effective treatments, more often’. The document is presented in two parts: pages 2–11 provide a rapid summary of the issue, what can be done, and what does and doesn’t work to increase the delivery of smoking cessation treatments in primary care settings. In addition, more detailed descriptions, evidence summaries, and examples of different intervention types1–9 follow in pages 12–23.