Smoking – Heart Healthy Toolbox

Tools for both patients and HCPs focus on the importance of smoking cessation, and actionable steps and checklists to support success in the process.

Components

Components are available to download individually or together as the whole section. You can also view all sections of the Heart Healthy Toolbox.

For Patients

• Smoke-Free Life

For Providers

• Smoking Cessation (also available below)

Smoking Cessation

While tobacco use has declined in some areas, globally an estimated 1.3 billion individuals still use tobacco globally, leading to both health and economic impacts. Because nicotine is such an addictive substance, tobacco cessation can be difficult for patients to achieve. Providing accurate information, education, and—for those who need it—therapeutic interventions can make a big difference.

Throughout the patient journey, utilizing shared decision-making, strategies for behavior change, and nonjudgmental support are important. Multiple attempts and interventions are often necessary to treat.

Tobacco use may include cigarettes, cigars, smokeless (“chewing”) tobacco, or tobacco ingested through hookahs and vaping devices.

• Ask about tobacco use
• Assess: discuss importance of quitting & patient willingness to quit
• Assist the quit attempt
  • Provide brief, practical counseling
  • Medication, if appropriate
    • Recommended with high certainty:
      • Varenicline
      • Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT)
      • Bupropion
    • Recommended with moderate certainty:
      • Combinaton NRT (e.g., combination patch & short-acting form such as gum or lozenge)
      • Cytisine
  • Refer to additional resources
    • Quit lines
    • Behavioral counseling (individual, group)—online & in-person
    • Digital interventions
      • Text-to-quit messaging
      • Smartphone apps
      • Web-based interventions
      • AI-based interventions
      • Arrange for follow-up appointment, check-ins via phone, virtual or in-person visit

Adapted from:

• US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A Practical Guide to Help Your Patients Quit Using Tobacco. PDF Accessed May 8, 2025.
• World Health Organization. WHO clinical treatment guideline for tobacco cessation in adults. Accessed May 8, 2025.

Supported by independent educational grants from Merck & Co, Inc. and Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation.