Nicotine Dependence among Smokers: A Community Based Study

Nicotine dependence is a challenging health problem present among smokers as it involves a compulsive use of a substance in spite of its known harmful effects. Hence, A community based cross-sectional study was conducted for a period of eight months from November 2020 to June 2021 in the selected smoking population of Raichur district. Data was collected using a pre structured questionnaire of the participants for age, gender, and socio- economic data. Informed consent was obtained from participants before study. Direct interview was conducted with patients using a questionnaire which contains three parts. Patient’s Nicotine dependence was assessed using scores obtained from each scale. Among 150 participants 142 (94.67%) patients were male and 8 (5.33%) patients were female.  Participants under the age group of 41-60 years were more i.e. 51 (34%). It was observed that most of them were married. When taking account of education of the participants 55 (36.67%) were graduates, 34 (22.67%) were secondary educated and only 28 (18.67%) participants were illiterate. Most of the participants had occupations such as business 18%, agriculture 28%, employees 36.67% and only 16.67% were not having occupation. In the FTDN score 78 (52%) participants were having moderate nicotine dependence as in HIS dependence score shows more number of low Nicotine dependence i.e. 74 (49.33%). This study showed that most of the participants had low or moderate nicotine dependence. Hence it is needed to be continuously evaluated in order to reduce complications for major disease, premature death and improve the quality of life of the population. 
Keywords: Tobacco smoking, Nicotine dependence, FTND, HSI.