Table 4.

Main protocol of the Telephone Counselling (TC) and Face-to-face Counselling (FC) sessions for smoking cardiac patients

Preparation		Action		Maintenance
Session 1 (Pre-) contemplation: Discussing the harmful effects of nicotine and the vicious cycle of nicotine dependence. Striking a balance between pros and cons of smoking and cessation.	Session 2 Preparation: Helping the patient to make the decision to quit smoking and prepare for quitting by providing information on nicotine withdrawal.	Session 3 Action: Providing information about the desire to smoke. Teaching strategies for dealing with craving and withdrawal symptoms.	Session 4 Action: Providing information about tempting (high risk) situations. Teaching coping strategies for tempting situations.	Session 5 Maintenance: Providing information about relapse and discussing strategies for how to prevent relapse to smoking. Developing an emergency plan in case the patient lapses.	Session 6 Maintenance: Choosing and discussing a theme relevant to the patient (i.e. stress, negative affect social pressure or controlling weight) to avoid relapse to smoking.	Session 7 Maintenance: Follow-up call. Evaluation of the cessation progress and discussing relapse prevention strategies.
All sessions • Boost patients’ motivation to quit smoking and/or maintain abstinence; • Adapt the content of the session to the particular situation and need of the patient; • Take into account that numerous patients quit at hospitalisation and retrospectively discuss pre-action stages to enhance consciousness of smoking cessation.
TC: 15 min FC: 45 min week 1	TC: 15 min FC: 45 min week 2	TC: 15 min FC: 45 min week 3	TC: 15 min FC: 45 min week 4	TC: 15 min FC: 45 min week 5	TC: 15 min FC: 45 min week 7	TC: 15 min FC: 15 min week 12