Golden advice for people who want to quit smoking

Health workers need to protect the younger generation from tobacco

On May 22, Bach Mai Hospital coordinated with the Tobacco Harm Prevention Fund to organize a scientific workshop and share experiences in counseling and treating tobacco addiction.

Speaking at the workshop, Associate Professor, Dr. Vu Van Giap - Deputy Director of Bach Mai Hospital said that with the efforts of the Ministry of Health , experts, officials, and support from international organizations including the World Health Organization in Vietnam, Resolution 173/2024 was passed by the National Assembly and agreed to ban the production, trading, import, transportation, and use of electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco products from 2025.

In particular, the medical staff of Bach Mai Hospital provided evidence, scientific data, and cases of patients seriously affected by electronic cigarettes, heated tobacco, and hallucinogenic cigarettes mixed with synthetic drugs, causing acute lung damage and irreversible nerve damage, contributing to the promulgation of the Resolution.

According to Associate Professor, Dr. Vu Van Giap, medical staff with their mission need to protect the younger generation from cigarettes and new types of cigarettes because if they have tried smoking, the risk of addiction in the younger generation will be very high. Especially for those who are suffering from diseases related to cigarettes or not related to cigarettes, if they smoke and are affected by passive smoking, it will cause a difficult prognosis, expensive treatment costs, along with the risk of resistance to treatment drugs.

The Deputy Director of Bach Mai Hospital gave an example: If a person who has just had a coronary stent placed costing tens of millions continues to smoke, there is a risk of re-occlusion, other coronary artery blockages, ineffective treatment, and the burden of disease is not resolved. In addition, the Lung Cancer patient group will be resistant to chemotherapy or develop new cancer; the COPD patient group will relapse if they continue to smoke, and the drugs used to treat the attack will not be effective; the pregnant and reproductive-age women group... if they smoke or are exposed to passive smoking, it will affect the quality of the offspring...

Therefore, Associate Professor, Dr. Vu Van Giap believes that officials need to try with simple questions, a small disease prevention task but with great effectiveness to detect smokers and then influence, change behavior, protect and prevent health.

Currently, Bach Mai Hospital also supports training, consulting and directing many hospitals in smoking cessation counseling, building a counseling hotline, etc.

The key factor to successfully quit smoking is medical advice.

Dr. Jennifer Houston - Deputy Representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Vietnam said that counseling and medication can double the chances of successful quitting of tobacco users. There is evidence that health workers have the greatest potential of any group in society to support people to quit smoking.

Dr. Jennifer Houston - Deputy Representative of WHO in Vietnam - said that health workers play an important role in increasing the rate of smoking cessation.

"Brief advice from health professionals can increase the success rate of quitting smoking by up to 30%, while in-depth advice increases the chance of quitting by 84%. Among smokers who are aware of the dangers of smoking, most want to quit," said Dr. Jennifer Houston.

According to Associate Professor, Dr. Phan Thu Phuong - Director of the Respiratory Center - Bach Mai Hospital, studies have shown that the role of medical staff brings a fairly high success rate in smoking cessation counseling programs. Even short counseling increases the success rate of quitting smoking by 5-10%, and the longer the counseling time, the more counseling sessions will increase the effectiveness of smoking cessation.

Doctors help patients quit smoking by: Advising them to quit; Providing brief counseling; Prescribing smoking cessation medications; Providing additional smoking cessation services such as a helpline; Ongoing monitoring and support to help avoid relapse. All members of the care team can help to improve effectiveness and coordination. The provision of smoking cessation treatment is implemented and evaluated effectively.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Phan Thu Phuong spoke at the Workshop.

In 2024, 7,443 patients among the patients who smoked and came to Bach Mai Hospital for examination and treatment received brief counseling on smoking cessation, and of these, 1,816 patients received Intensive Counseling after brief counseling. In a study of 300 smokers, at the time of assessment, after receiving direct counseling from a doctor, 48.4% of the subjects quit smoking, of which 20.7% quit smoking for 12 months or more, 15% quit smoking for 6 to less than 12 months, 11% quit smoking for 1 to less than 6 months, and 1.7% quit smoking for less than 1 month.

Associate Professor, Dr. Phan Thu Phuong added that in the coming time, the Hospital will continue to coordinate with Outpatient clinics and Inpatient Department to implement the drug addiction counseling process so that medical staff always remember and spend time counseling patients, contributing to the successful smoking cessation for patients.

Minh Trang

Source: https://baophapluat.vn/loi-khuyen-vang-cho-nguoi-muon-tu-bo-thuoc-la-post549433.html