Netherlands National Drug Monitor - Research and Documentation ...

medication, Champix ® , which was launched onto the Dutch market in March 2007,
was prescribed as often as Zyban ® by the end of that year (Foundation for Pharmaceutical
Statistics, SFK, 2008).
• The Stop-Smoking Minimal Intervention Strategy (MIS) has proved to be an effective
instrument which GPs, nurses and cardiologists can use to encourage patients to
give up smoking (Bolman et al., 2004). The application of the MIS intervention by
midwives can lead to a significant reduction in smoking among pregnant women (De
Vries et al., 2006). It is thought that its adoption and implementation by the nursing
departments of cardiology and obstetrics could be significantly improved (Segaar,
2006).
• In late 2004, an official guideline for treating tobacco addiction was published by the
Dutch Institute for Healthcare Improvement (CBO). This guideline contains strategies
for dealing with patients who smoke and describes the effectiveness of various treatments
(CBO, 2004; Van Weel et al., 2005).
• In 2007, the NHG Guideline on giving up smoking was published. This guideline for
general practices is a reworking of the CBO Guideline and builds on the Minimal
Intervention Strategy on giving up smoking for general practice (H-MIS) (Chavannes
et al., 2007). In April 2009, the Health Care Insurance Board (CVZ) issued a recommendation
that the smoking cessation programme should be covered by health insurance
from 2010. (Kroes & Mastenbroek, 2009). Since then, the minimal intervention
strategy has been relaunched independently of any single insurer, and is known as
the STIMEDIC ® Stop Smoking method (www.stivoro.nl).
• The Stop Smoking health care module is expected to be ready in 2009. This module
is covered by the illness-specific health care guidelines to which quitting smoking
apply. It is also offered as a separate intervention for anyone who wants to give up
smoking.
The STIVORO advisory centre also provides support to people who want to give up
smoking.
• The campaign ‘There is a non-smoker inside every smoker’ ran from late April 2008
to late January 2009. This campaign was run in conjunction with the introduction of
the smoking ban in the hospitality industry on 1 July 2008. During the campaign,
1.4 million smokers made an attempt to quit smoking. By means of intermediaries,
attempts were also made to reach target groups in the Turkish community STIVORO,
2009a).
• Since mid-2008, assistance is offered free of charge via the interactive internet
programme ‘the stop site’, to those who want to give up smoking. In the space of
half a year, 2,600 people availed of this offer.
• The number of telephone coaching sessions rose from 703 in 2007 to 950 in 2008.
• The percentage of quit attempts without the use of smoking cessation aids remained
stable at around 70 percent between 1992 and 2008, as did the percentage of (ex-)
smokers that used these aids for a quit attempt (on average 23%) (De Korte et al.,
2008).
186 Netherlands National Drug Monitor - NDM Annual Report 2009