Education in Heart
Cardiovascular disease preventionSmoking cessation: how to advise the patient
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to Dr Serena Tonstad, Loma Linda University, School of Public Health, Department of Health Promotion & Education, 24951 North Circle Drive, Room 1511, Loma Linda, CA 92350, USA; stonstad@llu.edu
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Cigarette smoking causes more preventable deaths from cardiovascular disease (CVD) than from any other single disease. Smoking cessation slows disease progression and reduces risk of recurrence and premature death by 
50% in patients with CVD. Smoking cessation counselling at the time of discharge from hospital for a myocardial infarction is considered a class I mandated behaviour,1 although brief interventions delivered only during hospitalisation may be ineffective.2 3
Observations show that only one third to one half of patients who smoke at the time of myocardial infarction subsequently manage to quit. This indicates that many smokers do not receive optimal medical support for cessation. There is often a gap between hospital discharge and follow-up by the primary care physician. Cardiologists and hospital physicians potentially play a key role in motivating and supporting quitting behaviour and should not assume that primary care physicians will fill the gap. The second European
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