Smoking habit and dependence to nicotine in nursing students

• Autor(a) principal: Melão Santana, Wagner Martins
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Outros Autores: Berto, Gabriela Ramos, Lombardi, Fabio Renato, Guideti Marques, Silvio Fernando
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista da Faculdade de Odontologia de Lins (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://www.metodista.br/revistas/revistas-unimep/index.php/Fol/article/view/2272

Introduction: Smoking is considered the most important public health problem and the leading cause of preventable death. Proposition: To identify the prevalence of smoking and its characteristics among nursing students from the University Center of Lins (Unilins), and to evaluate the degree of nicotine dependence of smokers through the Fagerström test. Materials and methods: A sectional study of a random sample of 69 students answered an individual and confidential pre-coded questionnaire after signing the Informed Consent Form (ICF). The smoking-related questions were divided into three domains, targeted at regular and occasional smokers, former smokers, and nonsmokers. Results: Most respondents were females (81.2%) with a mean age of 23 years. There was a smoking prevalence of 7.2%, with a smoking onset age ranging between 12 and 21 years. There was a total predominance of females (100.0%), with an average consumption of two to five cigarettes per day and addiction time around nine years. Eighty-six point seven percent (86.7%) of nonsmokers feel uncomfortable when a smoker lights a cigarette in the same environment. Willpower was mentioned by former smokers as the main reason to overcome addiction; however, only 20% of them seek to avoid environments where smokers are present. About 80% of the smokers in this study have already tried to quit the habit, but without success, and 60% said that smoking does harm them, but they continue to smoke. Regarding Anti-Smoking Law, 88.3% of respondents said it is important and generally praised it. Most smokers (60.0%) had a degree of nicotine dependence. Conclusion: The prevalence of smoking was low (7.2%) when compared with other similar studies. It is suggested the development of measures to raise awareness about the smoking practice so as to prevent it in this population, especially among women.