Smoking dependency behaviour towards conventional & e-cigarette among selected government instituition in Indera Mahkota, Kuantan 2016

• Main Authors: Pasi, Hafizah, Mohd Rus, Razman, Ab Rahman, Jamalludin, Abd. Aziz, Karimah Hanim, Nasreen, Hashima E, Yusof, Muhammad Zubir
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/52692/11/52692.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/52692/

Background. Smoking is a learned behavior that is reinforced and maintained by dependence. In current studies, behavioral component of smoking dependency is less explored. We aim to describe the smoking dependency behavior towards conventional and e-cigarette among staffs of selected government institution in Kuantan, Pahang in February 2016. Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted among all staffs of one conveniently selected government institution in Kuantan, Pahang (N=110) from 1st to 16th February 2016. There were 105 final samples with response rate of 95.5%. Universal sampling method was used. A set of questionnaire was distributed to assess socio-demographic status, smoking status, and smoking dependency behavior (based on Modified Glover Nilsson Smoking Behavioral Questionnaire, Cronbach Alpha of 0.89). Data were then analyzed by using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 23.0. The percentage of each variable was calculated and the differences were tested using chi-square test. The p value was taken at p <0.05 as significant Results. This study revealed that 36.2% of respondents are currently use conventional cigarette only, while 17.1% currently use both. On top of that, 60.0% of them never use e-cigarette, 43.8% never use conventional cigarette while 42.9% never use both. In term of smoking dependency, 59.6% conventional smokers score strong, 22.8% score mild, and 17.5% score moderate, while for e-cigarette users, strong dependency is the highest (62.5%), followed by moderate (27.5%), mild (7.5%) and very strong (2.5%). Interestingly, age group (young to middle adult have strong to very strong cigarette dependency behavior, 71.4% and p=0.004) and smoking status (current dual users score strong to very strong, 94.1% and p< 0.001) are significantly related to smoking dependency. Figure 1. Prevalence of smoking dependency score for conventional and e-cigarette among respondents (n=105). Conclusion. More than half of the respondents have strong dependency regardless whether they smoke conventional cigarette or e-cigarette (59.6% versus 62.5%). In addition, smoking dependency is significantly influenced by age group and smoking status. Thus, regulations regarding both conventional and e-cigarette should be reviewed as soon as possible to curb dependency especially among younger generations.