WHO clinical treatment guideline for tobacco cessation in adults (2024)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Issuing body | World Health Organization (WHO) |
| Year | 2024 (first-ever WHO clinical guideline on tobacco cessation) |
| Scope | Adults using any tobacco product: cigarettes, waterpipes, smokeless tobacco, cigars, roll-your-own, heated tobacco products |
| Basis | GRADE evidence reviews |
| Source | WHO publication 9789240096431 |
Key recommendations
- Behavioural support: brief advice (30 seconds to 3 minutes) should be offered to every tobacco user in health settings; more intensive individual, group or telephone counselling should be offered where feasible.
- Digital interventions: digital cessation interventions can be offered as complements to other support.
- Pharmacotherapy (adults): recommends varenicline, nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), bupropion and cytisine as effective cessation medications. Choice should consider the user's medical context, preferences and availability.
- Combination: behavioural plus pharmacological treatment is recommended over either alone.
- Smokeless tobacco: specific recommendations for cessation of smokeless tobacco products are included.
Notable context
- The guideline is written for health-care providers and for health-system managers; it is designed to be implementable in low-resource settings.
- WHO notes that in 2023 it initiated a prequalification procedure for cessation medications, and that NRT products were first prequalified in April 2024.
- On e-cigarettes: WHO states the current evidence is insufficient to recommend them as cessation aids at population level, while acknowledging that individual countries regulate them differently.
Differences from other guidelines
Compared with NICE NG209 (UK), WHO is more cautious about e-cigarettes as cessation aids. Compared with USPSTF 2021, WHO explicitly includes cytisine, which is not FDA-approved in the US. All three agree on the core: offer behavioural support plus pharmacotherapy.