State of current smoker's nicotine dependence and health behavior in workplaces

Abstract

Abstract
[Background] The smoking rate of young female is still increasing, while the rate of adult male smokers is decreasing in Japan.
[Methods] We conducted a survey at workplaces regarding the current smoker's nicotine dependence and health behavior to promote efforts toward smoking cessation using self-administered questionnaires.
　The subjects were employees of two workplaces.
Among current smokers, the Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND) and the Tobacco Dependence Screener (TDS) and questionnaires to examine their awareness of smoking cessation. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to assess the factors related to awareness of smoking cessation.
[Results] The available response rate was 97.7%(302/307). The average TDS score was 4.3 for male smokers and 5.2 for female smokers. The TDS score for female smokers in their 20 s and 30 s was significantly higher than that of male smokers in the same age. The current smokers with 5 or more TDS scores felt less healthy than previous smokers and nonsmokers. The number of subjective symptoms and stress related to the factors other than jobs in current smokers were larger than those in previous smokers and in nonsmokers. A logistic regression analysis showed that TDS scores significantly indicated awareness of smoking cessation (odds ratio: 1.49, 95% confidence interval:1.11-2.0)
[Conclusion] It revealed that young female smoker's nicotine dependence with TDS was higher than young male smokers. The subjective symptoms and stress related to factors other than jobs were significantly related to the current smokers high TDS score.