Quitting attempts and potential barriers towards tobacco cessation in out patients: A retrospective analysis

Abstract

Background and Aim: Tobacco use is one of the leading global causes of avoidable death worldwide and a major risk factor for the development of cardiovascular diseases, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases and cancer. A study in Canada reported that 64.4% of the people that used tobacco wanted to quit. Unfortunately only less than 5% of such attempts actually lead to long-term abstinence. This study aims to evaluate the quitting attempts and various barriers faced by patients when attempting tobacco cessation. Methodology: In this study we evaluated the records of 354 different patients that underwent Anti-tobacco counselling in Saveetha dental college and hospitals to determine the number of quitting attempts made and some common barriers faced by them in the process. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS software. The statistical analysis for correlation was done using Perason’s Chi-Square test and Cross tabulation was done. Age and Gender were considered as independent variables. Results: The results showed that 28.81% of the patients that reported to the clinic were from the age group 31-40 years. Only 5.93% of the patients had made more than two attempts to quit tobacco. 44.07% of the patients showed a cessation period of less than 6 months.