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

摘要

BackgroundThe 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.