Brochure for Healthcare Providers-Download the Brochure

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The document provides comprehensive guidelines for healthcare providers on tobacco control and smoking cessation, including the use of e-cigarettes. Key points include:<br /><br />1. **E-Cigarettes vs. Traditional Cigarettes**: E-cigarettes heat a liquid, often containing nicotine, rather than burning tobacco as traditional cigarettes do. Although potentially less harmful, e-cigarettes are not risk-free and can lead to nicotine dependence. More research is needed to understand their long-term health implications.<br /><br />2. **E-cigarettes for Smoking Cessation**: Some evidence suggests e-cigarettes may help people quit smoking in the short term, but their long-term efficacy as a cessation tool remains unproven.<br /><br />3. **Clinical Recommendations**: Healthcare providers are urged to make smoking cessation a key part of patient care, promote its benefits, and integrate best practices into clinical settings. High-intensity behavior therapy and pharmacologic interventions such as nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) and varenicline are recommended. Combining these therapies with counseling yields the best quit rates.<br /><br />4. **Role of Healthcare Providers**: Providers should:<br />   - Ask every patient about tobacco use and advise them to quit.<br />   - Integrate cessation support into practice.<br />   - Engage with children about tobacco and e-cigarettes.<br />   - Advocate for mandatory assessment of tobacco use in healthcare settings.<br />   - Deliver messages on the health effects of tobacco and cessation benefits.<br />   - Educate and inform the community and media about effective tobacco control policies.<br /><br />5. **Importance of Tobacco Cessation**: Reducing tobacco use is crucial for improving global health. Tobacco smoke exposure is a leading preventable risk factor for cancers, heart disease, pulmonary disease, stroke, and diabetes. Continued smoking after a cancer diagnosis can worsen mortality, increase the risk of secondary cancers and recurrence, and enhance treatment toxicity.<br /><br />Healthcare providers must proactively assist patients in quitting smoking, considering both behavioral and pharmacologic strategies to support multiple quit attempts. Providers are also encouraged to refer patients to evidence-based cessation programs where needed.

Keywords

tobacco control

smoking cessation

e-cigarettes

nicotine dependence

healthcare providers

behavior therapy

nicotine replacement therapy

tobacco use

tobacco cessation

pharmacologic interventions