Relevance

Tobacco users respond best when the information is relevant to their disease status or risk, family or social situation (for example, having children in the home), health concerns, age, gender, and other important patient characteristics (for example, prior quitting experience, personal barriers to cessation).
Customize your advice to fit the person:

• A tobacco user who complains of a chronic cough can be advised to quit as a way of improving his/her lungs.
  
  
• A young mother who uses tobacco might consider quitting as a way to help her child who suffers frequent ear infections.

Risks

Focus on the risks the patient associates with tobacco. The risks that seem most relevant to the person can be highlighted, such as chronic bronchitis and lung cancer. The clinician should emphasize that smoking low-tar/low-nicotine cigarettes or use of other forms of tobacco
(e.g., smokeless tobacco, cigars, and pipes) will not eliminate these risks.

Examples of risks:
 
Acute risks:

• Shortness of breath
• Exacerbation of asthma
• Harm to pregnancy
• Impotence
• Infertility
• Increased serum carbon monoxide

Long-term risks:

• Heart attacks and strokes
• Lung and other cancers (larynx, oral cavity, pharynx, esophagus, pancreas, bladder, cervix)
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (chronic bronchitis and emphysema)
• Long-term disability
• Need for extended care

Environmental risks:

• Increased risk of lung cancer and heart disease in significant others
• Higher rates of smoking in children of tobacco users
• Increased risk for low birth weight, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
• Asthma
• Middle ear disease
• Respiratory infections in children of care providers who smoke