Virtually all clinicians are in a position to intervene with patients who use tobacco.4 Consider:
- Over 75% of smokers saw a physician in the last year
- 60% saw a dentist or dental hygienist
- Almost 50% saw a pharmacist
Even less than 3 minutes can help a smoker quit.4
Quick Counselling (QC) is very short advice for all patients who smoke, regardless of their current motivation level to quit.4

The 3 steps of QC: Ask, Advise, Act
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Step 1: Ask
Have you used any tabacco products in the past week/month/3 months?
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Step 2: Advise
Offer advice in an encouraging, supportive, empathetic manner
Advise that best results typically are achieved with pharmacotherapy and suport
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Step 3: Act
Refer to counselling, Internet programs, telephone quit lines
Consider nicotine replacement therapy
- Despite clear evidence of its positive effect, only 43% of patients received advice to quit from their GP.2
Watch a Quick Counselling tutorial - Adding NRT can double the chances for success over placebo (willpower alone) at 6 months6,7
Quick Counselling was proven to help smokers to quit
A physician’s advice of 3 minutes or less to quit smoking increased the likelihood of smoking cessation by 30% and abstinence by 29%.7
Advice | Estimated odds ratio (95% C.I.) | Estimated abstinence rate (95% C.I.) |
---|---|---|
No advice to quit (reference group) | 1.0 | 7.9 |
Physician advice to quit | 1.3 (1.1 – 1.6) | 10.2(8.5 – 12.0) |
Adapted from: US Department of Health and Human Services. Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence: 2008 Update, Clinical Practice Guideline.
- Over 40% of smokers attempt to stop in response to advice from their healthcare professional1
- 9 out of 10 patients said that they welcomed advice from their physician on quitting smoking

Adapted from Fowler G et al., 2000.
Tips to help patients trying to quit:43 | Motivational Strategies |
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Motivational approaches focus on providing:
Motivational strategies can:
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Why wait? Talk to your patients today about smoking. In less than 3 minutes, you can be the motivation that helps prompt them to quit. Get counselling tools
In a U.K. survey (n=264):9*
89% of patients liked their general practitioner (GP) asking about smoking and advising them to stop, reduce or seek help
59% showed a willingness to attempt change if recommended by their GP
* Survey sent to a random selection of the community, assessing attitudes towards GP detection of 4 risk behaviours, including smoking. Non-smokers were not asked about smoking interventions. Results were analyzed by the Yates’ adjusted chi-square test.