The major burden of tobacco related diseases is borne by developing countries. Tobacco cessation is an important step in preventing mortality and morbidity due to tobacco related diseases. The objective of the study was to assess the profile of tobacco users utilizing the services of the district anti tobacco cell in Bangalore. A cross sectional study was carried out in 2009. Total of 122 persons above 18 years old, current tobacco users and who were motivated to quit were interviewed by a trained medical social worker. Information about the socio-demographic profile of the clients, details of tobacco use and nicotine dependence levels using Fagerstrom score was collected. SPSS 16.0 software was used for data analysis. The results have been presented using descriptive statistics and ANOVA tests. The study population was comprised of exclusively males. The mean age was 34.9 years. Seventy four percent (73.8%) were smokers while 26% were users of smokeless tobacco products. Fagerstrom scores showed that majority of tobacco users (54% of smokers and 63% of smokeless tobacco users) had moderate to high nicotine dependence. Most of the clients were self-referred. The average pack years of tobacco use and the mean Fagerstrom score were higher in the physician referred group indicating that physicians have access to tobacco users who could benefit the most from tobacco cessation efforts. Clients attending tobacco cessation clinics tend to have moderate to high tobacco dependence. Health care providers need to put in more efforts to refer tobacco users to tobacco cessation services. Improved physician awareness could help in stepping up tobacco cessation efforts.
Tobacco Use Cessation ; Lobeline ; Smoking ; Tobacco Use Disorder

BACKGROUND: The Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND) is a widely used six-item questionnaire. Its completion require a few minutes, but such time may be too much for busy clinicians and large epidemiologic surveys. The goals of this study was to compare the sensitivity and the specificity of Heavy Smoking Index (HSI) of high nicotine dependence. METHODS: The FTND was administered to 943 current smokers from a smoking-cessation clinic in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul. The HSI which combines two items of the FTND (the number of cigarettes per day and the time of the first cigarette of the day) was compared to the FTND. We measured cigarette per day, duration of smoking, and age of smoking initiation. RESULTS: A cutoff score equal or greater than 4 on the HSI detected a similar rate of nicotine dependence as a cutoff score equal or greater than 6 on the FTND. The HSI showed a sensitivity of 88.0% and a specificity of 86.5%. The concordance between the two instruments was high (kappa= 0.74). CONCLUSION: The HSI was proven to be very useful. If HSI had a proper validity, the HSI can be a good standard of high nicotine dependence for busy clinician and epidemiologists.
Nicotine ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Tobacco Products ; Tobacco Use Disorder

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study is to assess the reliability and validity of the Korean version of the Tobacco Craving Questionnaire (K-TCQ), a multidimensional, self report instrument evaluating tobacco craving in a population of current smokers. METHODS: The Korean version of TCQ was administered to 216 current cigarette smokers. RESULTS: The Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the K-TCQ was high (0.95) which provided the evidence for the internal consistency. The test-retest reliability of K-TCQ was 0.66 (correlation coefficient, p<0.01). The correlation coefficients between the K-TCQ and each five VAS questionnaires were high (0.50-0.59, p<0.01). Inter-correlations of K-TCQ, VAS, FTQ, BDI, STAI-I and STAI-II were significant (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: The Korean version of TCQ is a valid and reliable scale for evaluating tobacco craving.
Surveys and Questionnaires ; Reproducibility of Results ; Self Report ; Smoking ; Tobacco ; Tobacco Products ; Tobacco Use Disorder

No abstract available.
Nicotine ; Psychometrics ; Substance Withdrawal Syndrome ; Tobacco Use Disorder

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine effects of smoking cessation program in large size company using motivational enhancement counseling. METHODS: A quasi-experimental design was conducted. 72 workers in intervention group and 65 workers in control group participated in 7 large size companies. Smoking cessation program consisted of a campaign, smoking cessation education, and 6 weeks motivational enhancement counseling. The motivational enhancement counseling was tailored to the individual's stage of change. Stages of smoking behavior, smoking cessation rate, nicotine dependence, and confidence of smoking cessation were assessed after intervention. RESULTS: The results showed that intervention had a significant impact on improving stages of smoking behavior and smoking cessation rate, and impact on decreasing nicotine dependence, compared to those of a control group. CONCLUSION: The effects and feasibility of smoking cessation program including motivational enhancement counseling were revealed in the large size company. These results might provide information that can be used in improving cultures of smoking cessation for workers.
Counseling ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Smoking Cessation ; Tobacco Use Disorder

Risk Factors ; Tars ; toxicity ; Tobacco Products ; standards ; toxicity ; Tobacco Use Disorder ; etiology ; prevention & control

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the impact of intervention on tobacco related knowledge, attitudes and practice of smokers.

METHODSAn observational study was conducted among the smokers seeking counsel at smoking cessation clinic in our hospital from October 2008 to August 2013. First, a face to face counsel and mental intervention for more than 30 minutes was given to smoker, then 4 interventions through telephone call for 15-20 minutes for each time were conducted 1 week later, 1 month later, 3 months later and 6 months later, respectively. The controls were smokers receiving health examination in our hospital. No interventions were conducted among them. The tobacco related knowledge, attitudes and practice at baseline survey and follow up 1 year later were compared between intervention group and control group.

RESULTSThe intervention group included 414 smokers and the control group included 213 smokers. Intentional analysis indicated that the awareness/acceptance rates of 5 items about tobacco related knowledge and attitudes at follow up 1 year later was higher than those at baseline survey in intervention group. The smoking cessation rate was 27.3% in intervention group and 4.7% in control group. Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that the smoking cessation rate was positively correlated with intervention, female, highly nicotine dependence and positive change of tobacco related knowledge and attitudes (smoking can cause heart disease, all kinds of tobacco advertisements should be prohibited, smoking waste money and restaurant should be smoking free) with OR (95% CI): 2.85 (2.00-4.07), 3.34 (1.23-9.07), 2.78 (1.64-4.72), 2.30 (1.03-5.15), 5.33 (1.47-19.32), 6.32 (1.56-25.62) and 10.47 (2.25-48.84), respectively.

CONCLUSIONThe awareness rate of tobacco related harm was high among the smokers seeking counsel at smoking cessation clinic. Systematic smoking cessation intervention can improve smokers' tobacco related knowledge and attitudes and increase smoking cessation rate.

Female ; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice ; Humans ; Male ; Smoking ; adverse effects ; Smoking Cessation ; Tobacco ; Tobacco Use Disorder

OBJECTIVE:The study aimed to assess the valuation for cigarettes among UP Manila students aged 18-24 through direct and indirect stated preference methods.
METHODS: Direct (iterative bidding) and indirect (discrete choice experiment) stated preference methods were utilized to determine the smokers' Willingness-to-Pay (WTP) and non-smokers' Willingness-to-Accept (WTA). Median and interquartile range were used in describing both WTP and WTA. Fisher's Exact Test and T-test were performed using STATA v12 to determine the association between the identified factors. 
RESULTS: Of the 212 respondents, 21 (9.91%) were smokers. The smokers' direct and indirect WTP for a cigarette stick were PhP 6.00 and PhP 12.43, respectively. There was a significant difference (p=0.01) between the results of the two methods. Meanwhile, 40.84% of the non-smokers could be induced to smoke with PhP 0.00 as their WTA. No significant association was found between the smokers' stated preference and their smoking status and allowance. The WTP of the smokers was higher than the December 2013 retail prices of cigarettes.
CONCLUSION: The increased cigarette prices brought about by the Sin Tax Law were insufficient in stopping the selected UP Manila students to smoke. In addition, forty percent of non-smokers in the study could be induced to smoke. Thus, further price increase of cigarettes, as well as other tobacco control measures, is recommended to discourage smoking among the youth such as college students, specifically in UP Manila.

Human ; Male ; Female ; Adult ; Adolescent ; Tobacco ; Smoking ; Smoke ; Tobacco Use Disorder ; Choice Behavior ; Students ; Surveys And Questionnaires

The paper summarized briefly the evidences for tobacco use as a cause of cancer based on hundreds of epidemiologic and biomedical studies carried out over the past 50-60 years, as well as overviewed the carcinogens in tobacco products and mechanisms of neoplasm induction by tobacco products. So, tobacco control is the important measure for cancer prevention.
Carcinogenesis ; Carcinogens ; Health Policy ; Humans ; Neoplasms ; prevention & control ; Smoking ; Tobacco ; Tobacco Use Disorder

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to investigate smoking characteristics and nicotine dependence severity in bipolar disorder comparing those of schizophrenia. METHODS: 70 bipolar and 123 schizophrenic patients, diagnosed using DSM-IV-TR criteria and treated at the Severance Mental Health Hospital, were interviewed regarding socio-demographic variables, smoking characteristics and Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND), designed to evaluate the intensity of smoking. RESULTS: The rate of current smoking was 60.0% in the bipolar group, and 50.4% in the schizophrenia group. No significant difference was seen in terms of the rate of current smoking between the groups. Rates of having ever smoked also did not differ between bipolar (73%) and schizophrenic patients (65%). Daily cigarette consumption of bipolar patients (15.9 cigarettes/day) was significantly lower than that of schizophrenic patients (21.2 cigarettes/day), but FTND score didn't appear to differ between bipolar and schizophrenic patients. Bipolar females showed higher rate of current smoking (44%) than schizophrenic females (17%). Among bipolar patients, antipsychotics dose was not correlated with daily cigarette consumption and FTND total score. Age of disease onset didn't appear to differ between smokers and non-smokers in bipolar group. CONCLUSION: Although daily consumption was significantly lower in the bipolar group, the rate of smoking and smoking severity in bipolar disorder were as high as in schizophrenia. This fact suggests that the bipolar disorder might be related to the nicotinic acetylcholine system dysfunction as like schizophrenia.
Acetylcholine ; Antipsychotic Agents ; Bipolar Disorder* ; Female ; Humans ; Mental Health ; Schizophrenia* ; Smoke* ; Smoking* ; Tobacco Products ; Tobacco Use Disorder