Abby Steiert

Jody Williams

Public Health Research Abstract Paper

August 9, 2021

Assessment of Tobacco Users

By visiting dental outreach programs, a study was conducted to evaluate nicotine

dependence among people who use tobacco in Dharan, Nepal. This study was conducted using

statistics such as mean, median, percentage and range. The mean age of users the researchers

evaluated was just below 40. They had face-to-face interviews using a questionnaire for each

individual.

In the results the researchers conducted, 80% of the smokeless tobacco users and 48% ‘of

smokers had a moderate to severe dependance on nicotine. The dependency was much higher

with smokers having 10 cigarettes or more per day. In conclusion to this article, it is important to

conduct tobacco cessation programs and centers. Many mostly focus on smoking, but it is just as

important to have control on smokeless tobacco as well.

Tobacco use is considered a severe public threat and is heavily related to illness and

death around the world. There are 1 billion smokers around the world, and over 80% are in the

low and middle-income areas. Nicotine is a very addictive substance and has over 4,000

chemicals in it. In a majority of cases, it leads to addiction with users who will say they will use

it ‘just once.’ Once the dependency starts on users, it is not easy to quit. It leads to physical,
behavioral, and psychological issues trying to get rid of the tobacco and nicotine from a person’s

body.

This study was conducted in Nepal. The calculated sample size was 378. The eligibility

criteria was of people aged more than 18 years who visited programs of the Department of Public

Health Dentistry. The demographic variable consisted of age, sex, occupation, marital status,

education level and income of the family. There was a list of six questions for the participants to

answer. The score ranged from 0-10 and the score of dependency was highly dependent (score of

7-10), moderately dependent (4-6), and minimally dependent (<4). The higher scores indicated

withdrawal symptoms, and needs a plan of care to help break the dependency.

I chose this article because of the higher rate of dependency in the United States due to

vaping. A lot of teens and young adults are getting caught into vaping and smokeless tobacco

without the thought of possible consequences. The consequences are much higher than the

feeling of fitting in and having ‘one puff’ or ‘one dip’. This can lead to a serious addiction. This

addiction also leads to dependency and is a hard habit to break. The dependency on nicotine will

increase the likely-hood of health issues.

I think it is important we conduct nicotine cessation sessions with our patients addicted to

nicotine and tobacco. If they are willing to change and get help for themselves, it is important to

take time out of our appointment to give them ways to quit their addiction. By giving them goals

and interventions in and asking them about their progress in appointments will help motivate the

patients to stop using nicotine.

 Works Cited

https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-021-11535-9