Physical and Psychological Dependence of Smokeless and Smoked Tobacco
ZC01-ZC04
Correspondence
Dr. Kumar Gaurav Chhabra,
Reader, Department of Public Health Dentistry, MM College of Dental Sciences and Research (MMCDSR), Mullana, Ambala-133203, Haryana, India.
E-mail: rajsushil.chhabra@gmail.com
Introduction: Worldwide tobacco usage is considered to be the most pervasive addictive behaviour, which eventually leads to physical and psychological dependence on nicotine.
Aim: The present study was conducted to measure the physical and psychological dependence of smoked and smokeless tobacco.
Materials and Methods: It was a questionnaire based survey in which 500 smokeless and 500 smoking forms of tobacco users participated. A standard questionnaire format of modified Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence (mFTND) for physical dependence and American psychiatric association scale for psychological dependence was given to each subject to answer. The total score was calculated for each subject which evaluated the physical and psychological dependence on smoked and smokeless tobacco. Descriptive analysis was done to check the prevalence of physical and psychological dependence. Chi-squared test was used to assess associations of age, gender and education is study subjects.
Results: The study data revealed that the tobacco chewing habit was more common in males than in females. According to mFTND score for smokeless tobacco users, 16.3% males and 6.7% females and for smoked tobacco users, 35.65% males and 50% females were highly dependent. On using American psychological scale for nicotine dependence for smokeless tobacco users, 66.42% males and 56.17% females were psychologically dependent whereas for smoked tobacco 16.59% males were dependent on smoked tobacco.
Conclusion: Our study findings relate to both, the prevalence of smoking and smokeless nicotine dependence. We found that the rate of nicotine dependence was higher in males than in females. The prevalence of nicotine dependence was also higher in subjects with lower education.