Abstract
Introduction: The World Health Organization considers smoking as the top preventable reason of morbidity and early mortality. Tobacco smoking accounts for more than half of all deaths that can be easily avoided worldwide. Aim of work: To estimate the prevalence of smoking habit among Menoufia University administrative employees, and determine the degree of nicotine dependence among smokers. Materials and methods: A cross sectional survey has been conducted on an estimated simple cluster sample of 334 administrative employees in Menoufia University, Egypt, during the period from 1st of May to the end of August 2018. Level of addiction among smoking participants was assessed based on the validated Arabic version of Fagerstrom test for nicotine dependence (FTND) questionnaire. Results: The mean age of the participant was 39.03±9.05 years with a range of 21- 58 years. More than half of participants (62.9%) were males and 37.1% were females, cigarette and goza smoking have been reported in 68 participants (20.4%) and 17 (5.1%) of participants; respectively. All smokers were males, out of them 44.1% have low to moderate nicotine dependence, 16.2% have low dependence, 14.8% have moderate to high dependence, and 10.3% have no dependence. There is significant positive correlation between nicotine dependence and time for the first cigarette, the number of cigarettes, smoking index and the age (r=0.88,0.77 and 0.27 respectively) (P value <0.001, <0.001, <0.001 and <0.026 respectively). Conclusion: Cigarette and goza smoking have been reported among 20.4% and 5.1% of participants; respectively. Out of them, 44.1% have low to moderate dependence. This study showed that 63.2% of the smokers start to smoke their first cigarette within 30 minutes after waking up .There is significant positive correlation between nicotine dependence and time for the first cigarette, the number of cigarettes, smoking index and the age.