Cessation Materials for Tobacco Control Programs

Cessation resources

OSH helps tobacco control programs develop, conduct, and support strategic efforts to help people quit and reduce disease, death, and the huge cost of tobacco use.1 The following resources will help inform tobacco control programs and assist with tobacco cessation interventions and implementation.

Cessation best practices

• Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs, 2014: Cessation Interventions —Evidence-based cessation interventions are a core component of state tobacco control programs.
• Best Practices User Guide: Cessation, 2020—Addresses how to implement health systems change, increase insurance coverage for cessation treatment, and support state quitlines.
• Clinical Practice Guideline: Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence: 2008 Update—Effective clinical treatments for tobacco dependence.
  • Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence: 2008 Update—Overview—Evidence tables and recommendations in the clinical practice guideline.

• U.S. Prevention Services Task Force 2021 Recommendation Statement on Tobacco Smoking Cessation in Adults, Including Pregnant Persons: Interventions—Recommendations for primary care providers on effective tobacco cessation treatment for adults.
• Community Preventive Services Task Force Findings for Tobacco—Evidence-based findings for interventions that improve health and prevent disease.

Cessation insurance coverage

Broad resources

• Coverage for Tobacco Use Cessation Treatments (updated October 2020) —Evidence for tobacco cessation insurance coverage, best practices for designing coverage, and current status of cessation coverage.
• May 2014 FAQ Guidance on Cessation Coverage—Explains the Affordable Care Act provision on evidence-based preventive services for tobacco cessation coverage (see question 5).

Working with Medicaid

• Medicaid—Enrollment numbers and information on policies and programs.
• State Medicaid coverage for tobacco cessation treatments and barriers to accessing treatments – United States, 2008-2018—Medicaid coverage for tobacco cessation treatments and barriers to accessing treatments by state for 2008 and 2018.
• STATE System Medicaid coverage of tobacco cessation treatments fact sheet—Map and table of current state Medicaid coverage.
• Medicaid.gov Improving Tobacco Cessation—State Medicaid program support for tobacco cessation activities.

Working with Medicaid: state examples

• Reduce Tobacco Use – Implementing CDC's 6|18 Initiative: A Resource Center (chcs.org)—State examples of media campaigns on cessation coverage, policies and programs, and related surveys and evaluations. Select "State Examples" on the lower left of the page.
• Case Study: The Effect of Expanding Cessation Coverage—The Massachusetts Medicaid Cessation Benefit—Case study on the 2006 Massachusetts Medicaid cessation coverage benefit.
• Medicaid Tobacco Cessation Coverage in Oklahoma: A Case Study in Leveraging Systems and Partnerships—Case study of a CDC-funded cooperative agreement that provided technical assistance to a state tobacco control program.
• A Framework for Effective Promotion of a Medicaid Tobacco Cessation Benefit—Case study on how Vermont made its Medicaid cessation coverage and cessation services more accessible.

Health systems change

Broad health systems change for tobacco cessation resources

• Best Practices User Guide: Cessation—Addresses how to implement health systems change, increase insurance coverage for cessation treatment, and support state quitlines. See section titled, Promoting Health Systems Change (p 11–19).
• Million Hearts^®Tobacco Cessation Change Package and Tobacco Cessation Change Package Tutorial Video—YouTube—Resources to help increase the reach and effectiveness of tobacco cessation interventions.

Clinical implementation resources

• A Practical Guide to Help Your Patients Quit Using Tobacco —Overview on how to deliver a brief clinical intervention for tobacco cessation.
• Million Hearts^® Protocol for Identifying and Treating Patients Who Use Tobacco—Practical information on action steps, and health system design.
• Million Hearts^® Guide: Identifying and Treating Patients Who Use Tobacco: Action Steps for Clinicians—Guide for health care providers to help patients who use tobacco quit.
• The brief tobacco intervention: quick reference for health care providers—Overview on "2 A's and R" (Ask, Advise and Refer) and 5 A's (Ask, Advice, Assess, Assist, and Arrange) tobacco interventions.
• Healthcare Provider Resources—Background information, guidance, and quit smoking resources for health care providers.

State surveys of health plans

• Sample Managed Care Organization Survey Questions to Assess Smoking Prevalence and Available Cessation Benefit—Sample survey questions used by Medicaid and public health programs on tobacco cessation benefits.

Quitlines

• National Network of Tobacco Cessation Quitlines 15th Anniversary Infographic—Visual timeline of the evolution of state quitlines during 2004–2019.
• North American Quitline Consortium Quitline Map—Hours of operation, telephone and online services, medications, eligibility, and state quitline referral programs.

Youth cessation

• USPSTF Recommendation: Prevention and Cessation of Tobacco Use in Children and Adolescents: Primary Care Interventions—Recommendation that primary care clinicians provide interventions. This includes education or brief counseling, to prevent starting tobacco use among school-aged children and adolescents.
• PHS Guideline Recommendations: How to Help Adolescents Quit Smoking—Recommendations to provide adolescents who smoke with counseling interventions to aid them in quitting smoking.

Cessation and health equity

• CDC's Best Practices User Guide: Health Equity in Tobacco Control and Prevention—Information on how to identify gaps in health equity and work toward achieving health equity in tobacco control. Involves planning, implementing, and enforcing policies, programs, and interventions.
• CDC's National Networks Driving Action—A cooperative agreement to prevent commercial tobacco use and cancer in populations with tobacco- and cancer-related health disparities.
• National Cancer Institute: Monograph 22: A Socioecological Approach to Addressing Tobacco-Related Health Disparities, 2017, p 482—Summary of research on tobacco-related health disparities. Uses perspectives from epidemiology, individual behavior, biology, cultural context, and societal structures.
• Smoking Cessation: A Surgeon General's Report, Chapter 2, 2020—Summary of data on key disparities in cessation among adults.
• Tobacco Use and Quitting Among Individuals with Behavioral Health Conditions—Information and resources to encourage and assist with cessation among people with behavioral health conditions.
• Promising Policies and Practices to Address Tobacco Use by Persons with Mental and Substance Use Disorders—State examples of policies and programs to encourage and assist with cessation among people with mental and substance abuse disorders.
• Tobacco-Health Disparities Related to Commercial Tobacco and Advancing Health Equity—Information on disparities in cessation across groups defined by race, ethnicity, educational level, and socioeconomic status. Covers all regions of the country.
• Tips from Former Smokers: Specific Groups—Information on how smoking and secondhand smoke affect specific groups. Includes smoking-related statistics, information, and quitting resources.