Prevalence of Nicotine Dependence among Men Aged 21-60 Years in the Rural Field Practice Area of a Tertiary Care Hospital in Tamil Nadu, India.

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that about 4 million deaths worldwide annually are attributable to tobacco use. Tobacco use is an important risk factor for numerous chronic diseases like cancer, diseases of the lungs, and cardiovascular diseases. Despite this, tobacco use is common throughout the world. Almost 150 million young people are known to use tobacco out of which a majority worldwide began this when they were adolescents. The complex mechanism of nicotine dependency makes it challenging to evaluate dependence or progress towards dependence. The objectives of the study were: (1) To assess the prevalence of nicotine dependence among tobacco users. (2) To study the correlates of nicotine dependence among rural population.

Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted using a predesigned and pretested structured proforma. The study was conducted among men of 21-60 years in field visit area of SRM medical college. Karl fagerstrom nicotine dependence questionnaire was used to assess dependence on nicotine.

Results: The overall proportion of smokers was 35%. The mean age of initiation of smoking was 20.09 years and the reason was peer pressure, duration of smoking was 11.98 years. 46% of smokers had intention to quit smoking, others gave a reason as addiction (51.6%) for not quitting. Significant association was found between tobacco use and socio-economic parameters such as age group, marital and socio economic status.

Conclusion: The proportion of smokers was 35%. Significant determinants of smoking were those aged more than 40 years, those of lower socio economic status.